Surah 17. Al-Israa, Ayah 40

Lit., "and taken unto Himself, out of the angels, females": an allusion to the pre-Islamic Arabian belief that the angels - conceived of as a kind of female sub-deities - were God's "daughters", and this despite the pagan Arabs' contempt for female offspring (cf. {16: 57-59} and the corresponding notes). In its wider implication, this rhetorical question is meant to bring out the absurdity of the supposition that God's divinity could be projected into, or shared by, any other being (cf. {6 :100-101}).

 Some pagans had the belief that the angels are the daughters of Allah.

Cf. xvi. 57-59. Insistence on true worship means also exclusion of false worship or worship derogatory to Allah. In circles where daughters were despised and even their lives had to be protected by special legislation, what could have been dreadful than ascribing daughters to Allah?