If you say: What is the difference between the first, second, and third in His saying, 'from yourselves, from what your right hands possess, from partners'? I say: The first is for beginning, as if He said: He took an example and extracted it from the closest thing. It is something from you, which is yourselves, and it is not far off. The second is for partitive, and the third is additional for emphasizing the question which is in the manner of negation. Its meaning is: Do you accept for yourselves—and your slaves are like you, human beings like human beings, and slaves like slaves—that some of them share with you in what We have provided you of wealth and others, so that you are equal in it, without distinction between free and slave? You fear that you might act independently in a manner without them, and that you might intrude in their management as some of you fear others among the free. So if you do not accept this for yourselves, how can you accept for the Lord of lords and the Master of the free and the slaves to make some of His slaves partners with Him? Likewise, we detail the verses, meaning we clarify them, for the example is what reveals the meanings and clarifies them, for it is like imaging and shaping them. Do you not see how shirk (associating partners with Allah) is depicted in a distorted image?