Surah 53. An-Najm, Ayah 21

In view of the contempt which the pagan Arabs felt for their female offspring (cf. {16: 57-59} and {62}, as well as the corresponding notes), their attribution of "daughters" to God was particularly absurd and self-contradictory: for, quite apart from the blasphemous belief in God's having "offspring" of any kind, their ascribing to Him what they themselves despised gave the lie to their alleged "reverence" for Him whom they, too, regarded as the Supreme Being - a point which is stressed with irony in the next sentence.

 See footnote for 52:39.

To show Allah in human shape, or imagine sons or daughters of Allah, as if Allah were flesh, was in any case a derogation from the supreme glory of Allah, high above all creatures, even if the human shapes were invested with great beauty and majesty as in the Greek Pantheon. But when we consider in what low opinion Pagan Arabia held the female sex, it was particularly degrading to show Allah, or so-called daughters of Allah, in female shapes. Cf. xvi. 57-59, and n. 2082; also lii. 39, and n. 5073.