Say, Allah is a narration of their acknowledgment and a confirmation of it upon them. For when He says to them: Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth? They have no choice but to say Allah. As His saying: Say, Who is the Lord of the seven heavens and the Lord of the mighty Throne? They will say: Allah. This is like a debater saying to his companion: Is this your saying? If he says: This is my saying, then he says: This is your saying. It narrates his acknowledgment as a confirmation of it and a verification from him. Then he says to him: You are obliged by this saying to do such and such. It is also possible that it is a prompting, meaning: If they refrained from answering, then he prompted them, for they receive it and cannot deny it. Have you taken besides Him allies? After you have known Him to be the Lord of the heavens and the earth, you have taken allies besides Him. Thus, you have made what should have been the cause of monotheism from your knowledge and acknowledgment a cause of polytheism. They do not possess for themselves any benefit or harm; they cannot benefit themselves or avert harm from themselves. So how can they do so for others when you have preferred them over the Creator, the Provider, the Rewarder, and the Punisher? How clear is your misguidance! Or have they made? Rather, make. The meaning of the hamza is denial. And the meaning of 'or' is understood with 'but' and the hamza here indicates denial. In His saying: They created as He created, it is in the context of denial, mocking them, for other than Allah does not create at all, neither by way of resemblance and equality to Allah—glorified and exalted is He—nor by way of degradation and deficiency. It would have sufficed in denying them that the partners they took do not create at all. However, it came in His saying: as His creation, which mocks them and increases the denial in confirmation. Al-Zamakhshari cannot point out this nuance even though he is too clever to overlook it, for his belief is that other than Allah creates, and that the servants create their actions according to his claim, but they do not create as Allah creates, for Allah creates substances and attributes, while the servants create only their actions and nothing else. In His saying, exalted is He, Allah is the Creator of all things, it is a closure for the mouths of the early polytheists, and then for the mouths of those who follow them in this misguidance, like the Qadariyya. For Allah has made it clear that everything that is said to be created, whether substance or attribute, is created by Him, whether it is an action of His servants or others. So Allah is its Creator, and there remains no residue that can allow for partnership except with every sinful liar who hears the verses of Allah recited to him and then persists in arrogance as if he had not heard them, as if there were heaviness in his ears. So give him the glad tidings of a painful punishment. For some reason, Al-Zamakhshari's tongue faltered at this verse and he fell silent. And Allah is the Grantor of success. And they created is an attribute for the partners, meaning they did not take for Allah partners who are creators that have created like the creation of Allah. So the creation of Allah and their creation became similar to them, until they say: These are capable of creation just as Allah is capable of it, so they deserve worship. Let us take them as partners for Him and worship them as He is worshipped, for there is no difference between a creator and a creator. But they took for Him incapable partners who cannot do what the creation can do, let alone what the Creator can do. Say, Allah is the Creator of all things; there is no creator other than Allah, and it is not right for Him to have a partner in creation, so He cannot have a partner in worship. And He is the One, unique in lordship, the Subduer, who cannot be overcome, and everything else is created and subdued.