His saying, exalted and glorified is He:

﴿And We did not send before you any messenger except that We revealed to him that there is no deity except Me, so worship Me﴾ ﴿And they said, 'The Most Merciful has taken a son.' Exalted is He! Rather, they are honored servants﴾ ﴿They do not precede Him in speech, and they act by His command﴾ ﴿He knows what is before them and what is behind them, and they do not intercede except for one with whom He is pleased, and they, from His fear, are apprehensive﴾

When He informed them, blessed and exalted is He, that they do not know the truth due to their turning away, He followed that by informing them that He has never sent a messenger except that He revealed to him that Allah, exalted and glorified is He, is One, Eternal. This is a belief in which the prophethood has not differed; rather, they differed in rulings. Hamzah and al-Kisai read "We reveal" with a rounded noon, while the others read "It is revealed" with a rounded ya, and there is a difference reported from Asim.

Then Allah, exalted and glorified is He, enumerated another type of their disbelief, which is that, despite taking deities, they acknowledged that Allah, exalted and glorified is He, is the Creator and Provider. However, some of them said that the angels are daughters of Allah, and the Christians said something similar regarding Jesus, son of Mary, and the Jews regarding Uzair. Thus, this verse came as a refutation of all of them, alerting them. Then He glorified Himself from the saying of the disbelievers, and He turned away from their words, stating what is the truth in His essence with His saying: ﴿Rather, they are honored servants﴾. This phrase includes the angels, Jesus, and Uzair.

And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿They do not precede Him in speech﴾ is an expression of the goodness of their obedience and worship, and their consideration of complying with the command. And His saying, exalted is He: ﴿He knows what is before them and what is behind them﴾ means: what has preceded of their actions and deeds and the events that are attributed to them, and what has come after. Then He informed that they do not intercede except for one whom Allah has approved to intercede for, some of the interpreters said: for the people of 'There is no deity except Allah.' And "the apprehensive" refers to one who is intense in fear, burning with fright over a certain matter.