His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And they assign to that of which they have no knowledge a share of what We have provided them. By Allah, you will surely be questioned about what you used to invent." "And they assign to Allah daughters, glorified is He, while for them is what they desire." "And when one of them is given tidings of a female, his face becomes dark and he is filled with grief." "He hides from the people because of the evil of that of which he has been given tidings. Should he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? Unquestionably, evil is what they judge." The pronoun in "they assign" refers to the disbelievers. By "that of which they have no knowledge," He means the idols, meaning: they do not know in them any proof or evidence. It is possible that by His saying "they have no knowledge," He means the idols, meaning: they assign a share to inanimate objects that know nothing. The object is omitted. Then He expressed about them in the manner of one who has understanding according to the belief of the disbelievers who attribute to them what is attributed to one who has understanding, and according to the fact that it is a negated attribution. All of this is weak. The "share" referred to is what the Arabs established of slaughtering for their idols, and dedicating to them, and swearing for them from the crops. Then Allah, blessed and exalted, commanded His Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, to declare to them that they will be questioned about their fabrication in that those traditions are the truth which Allah commanded, as some of them have said. And "fabrication" is the invention of lies. His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And they assign to Allah daughters" is a mention of the ugliness of the disbelievers' saying: "The angels are the daughters of Allah." He refuted them from two angles: one is the attribution of offspring to Allah, exalted is He above that, and the other is that they attributed the most despicable and hated offspring to themselves. And "what" in His saying: "what they desire" is elevated by the beginning, and the news is in the genitive. Al-Farra' permitted that it could be in the accusative position, connected to "the daughters," while the Basri scholars do not permit this verse from the perspective of: "He struck me," and it would be necessary for them to say: "And for themselves is what they desire." The intended meaning of "what they desire" is the males among the children. His saying, exalted and majestic is He: "And when one of them is given tidings" is a statement of the thing that he has been given tidings of, and thus the mention of the good tidings in it is appropriate; otherwise, the good tidings are absolute and can only be in good. His saying: "His face becomes dark" is an expression of frowning and the scowl that befalls the distressed. And the face of the distressed may become dark and frothy, and its brightness may fade, and for that reason he mentions the darkness. "Filled with grief" means concealing, like "knowledgeable" and "learned," and the meaning is that he hides his face and his sorrow because of the female.

And His saying: ﴿He hides from his people﴾, this hiding that Allah, glorified and exalted is He, mentioned is indeed after the news of the female child. It is narrated that one of them would hide when his wife gave birth; he would conceal himself until he was informed of one of two matters. This is not the intended meaning in the verse. It seems that this was so that if he was informed of good news, he would come out, and if he was informed of bad news, he would remain hidden and would not need to reveal himself. The meaning of "hides" is "disappears", and the implication of the words is: he hides from the people, turning away. Does he keep her or bury her? A group read: "Does he keep him" based on the wording of "what", "or does he bury her" based on the meaning of the female. Al-Jahdari read: "Does he keep her", "or does he bury her" based on the meaning of the female in both instances. The majority read: "with disgrace" with the letter 'h' pronounced with a dammah, while a group read it with a fatha. Isa ibn Umar read: "with humiliation", which is the reading of Asim al-Jahdari. Al-Amash read: "with evil", and the meaning of the verse is: he plans: does he keep this female child in a state of humiliation that he can bear, and a worry that he will be burdened with, or does he bury her alive? For he is burying her in the ground. Then Allah, glorified and exalted is He, began to inform about the evil of their actions and their judgment regarding this concerning their daughters, and the provision of all is upon Allah.