When the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, recited to the Quraysh, "Indeed, you and what you worship besides Allah are the fuel of Hell," they were greatly disturbed by that. Abdullah ibn al-Zubair said: "O Muhammad, is this specific to us and our idols or for all nations?" He, blessings and peace be upon him, said: "It is for you and your idols and for all nations." He replied: "I challenge you by the Lord of the Kaaba! Do you not claim that Jesus, son of Mary, is a prophet and speak well of him and his mother? And you know that the Christians worship both of them. And Ezra is worshipped, and the angels are worshipped. If these are in the Fire, then we are pleased to be with them and our idols." They rejoiced and laughed, and the Prophet, blessings and peace be upon him, remained silent. Then Allah, the Exalted, revealed: "Indeed, those for whom the best reward has preceded from Us." This verse was revealed. The meaning is: When Abdullah ibn al-Zubair made Jesus, son of Mary, an example and argued with the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, about the worship of the Christians, your people, the Quraysh, are repelled by this example. They raise a clamor and noise, rejoicing and laughing at what they heard from him, silencing the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, with his argument, just as the noise of the people rises when they are confounded by an argument and then are opened up to them. As for those who read: "they repel" (yashuddun) with a damma, it means they turn away from the truth and avoid it because of this example. It was said that it is from 'sudud,' meaning the clamor, and that both are dialects similar to 'ya'kif' and 'ya'kif.' They said: "Are our idols better or is he?" They mean that our idols are not better than Jesus in your view, and if Jesus is among the fuel of the Fire, then the matter of our idols is trivial. They did not present this example to you except for the sake of argument, not to seek a distinction between truth and falsehood. Rather, they are a people who are obstinate in argument, as Allah, the Exalted, said: "a people who are obstinate." The meaning of His saying: "Indeed, you and what you worship besides Allah" is intended only for the idols. Likewise, His saying, blessings and peace be upon him: "It is for you and your idols and for all nations" is intended for the idols, and it is impossible that it is intended for the prophets and angels. However, Ibn al-Zubair, with his cunning and deceit, when he saw that the words of Allah and His Messenger were ambiguous in their wording, while knowing that the intended meaning was their idols and nothing else, found a way for trickery. He diverted its meaning to encompass all that is worshipped besides Allah, in a manner of contention and argumentation, and he became audacious in that until the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, was answered by his Lord: "Indeed, those for whom the best reward has preceded from Us," indicating that the verse is specific to the idols, although it appears that His saying: "and what you worship" is for the non-rational beings. It was said that when they heard His saying: "Indeed, the example of Jesus in the sight of Allah is like the example of Adam," they said: "We are more guided than the Christians, for they worship a human being, while we worship angels." Thus, it was revealed. And His saying: "Are our idols better or is he?" in this context is a preference for their idols over Jesus, for they mean the angels, and they did not present this to you except for argument. Its meaning is: "And what they said, meaning: Are our idols better or is he?" is only for the sake of argument. It was read: "Are our idols better?" with the interrogative hamza affirmed and omitted, as the 'am' indicates it. In the reading of Ibn Mas'ud: "better or this?" It is permissible that 'arguing' is a state, meaning: arguing. It was said that when the verse "Indeed, the example of Jesus in the sight of Allah" was revealed, they said: "What does Muhammad want by this except that we worship him and that he deserves to be worshipped, even if he is human, just as the Christians worship Christ, who is human." The meaning of "they repel" is that they raise a clamor and become agitated. The pronoun in "or is he" refers to Muhammad, blessings and peace be upon him, and their aim in comparing him to their idols is to mock and ridicule.

And it is permissible for them to say - when they were criticized for their saying: 'The angels are the daughters of Allah and they worship them' - that we did not say anything innovative in speech, nor did we commit any wrongdoing in action. For the Christians made Christ the son of Allah and worshipped him, and we are more sincere in saying and acting than they are. For we attributed to Him the angels, while they attributed to Him humans. So it was said to them: 'The doctrine of the Christians is polytheism against Allah, and your doctrine is similar polytheism. What you use to absolve yourselves from what you are upon is nothing but a false analogy with falsehood. And Jesus is nothing but a servant like other servants, upon whom We bestowed grace by making him a sign: as We created him without a cause, just as We created Adam, and We honored him with prophethood and made him a remarkable example, like the well-known parable for the Children of Israel.