Al-Anbiya: 26

(And they said: "The Most Merciful has taken a son.")

This is a narration of the transgression of a group of polytheists in order to demonstrate its falsehood and to clarify His—glory be to Him—transcendence above such a thing, following the clarification of His—Exalted and Majestic is He—transcendence above partners in any absolute sense. They are a clan from Khuza'a who said, "The angels are the daughters of Allah." Al-Wahidi reported that the Quraish, along with some of the Arabs from Juhaynah, Banu Salamah, Khuza'a, and Banu Mulayh, said this.

Ibn al-Mundhir and Ibn Abi Hatim narrated from Qatadah that he said: "The Jews said that Allah—the Almighty and Majestic—formed a kinship with the Jinn, and from them the angels were born, so this was revealed." The first view is the more famous. The verse is a denunciation of everyone who attributes such a thing to Him—Exalted is He—such as the Christians who say, "Isa is the son of Allah," and the Jews who say, "Uzair is the son of Allah." Exalted is Allah far above what they say. The focus on the title of Ar-Rahman (The Most Merciful), which implies that everything besides Him is His servant/possession, serves to highlight the extreme repulsiveness of their false statement.

(Exalted is He): Meaning, He is transcendent in His essence, a transcendence befitting Him. "Subhan" is an infinitive from sabbaḥa (to declare transcendence), as if saying, "I declare His transcendence." Alternatively, it is a proper noun for the act of declaration of transcendence, which is uttered by the tongues of the servants, or "they declared His transcendence."

His—Exalted is He—saying: (Nay, they are servants) is a redirection and an invalidation of what they said. It is as if it were said: "The angels are not as they claimed; rather, they are servants," in the sense that they are created by Him—Exalted is He—and therefore they are His property. It is not valid for a son to be a possession. In His—Exalted is He—saying (honored), meaning "brought near to Him—Exalted is He," is a warning regarding the source of their error. Ikrimah recited it as mukarrimūn with a shaddah.