Tafseer of Ornaments of gold · Az-Zukhruf · 43:19
And they have made the angels, who are servants of the Most Merciful, females. Did they witness their creation? Their testimony will be recorded, and they will be questioned.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His statement, the Exalted: وَجَعَلُوا الْمَلائِكَةَ الَّذِينَ هُمْ عِبَادُ الرَّحْمَنِ إِنَاثًا أَشَهِدُوا خَلْقَهُمْ سَتُكْتَبُ شَهَادَتُهُمْ وَيُسْأَلُونَ (And they made the angels, who are the servants of the All-Merciful, females. Did they witness their creation? Their testimony shall be written down and they shall be questioned) (19)
The Exalted, whose praise is mentioned, says: and these polytheists, who ascribe partners to Allah, made His angels, who are the servants of the All-Merciful.
The Qurʾān-reciters differed over its reading. Most of the reciters of Medina read it as "alladhīna hum ʿinda al-Raḥmān" (who are with the All-Merciful) with the nūn, as though they explained that in light of Allah's statement, mighty is His praise: Indeed, those who are with your Lord are not too arrogant . So the meaning of the sentence according to this reading is: and they made Allah's angels, who are with Him, glorifying Him and sanctifying Him, into females, and they said: they are the daughters of Allah, out of ignorance concerning the right of Allah, and out of audacity on their part in speaking lies and falsehood. And most of the reciters of Kufa and Basra read it as ( وَجَعَلُوا الْمَلائِكَةَ الَّذِينَ هُمْ عِبَادُ الرَّحْمَنِ إِنَاثًا ) (and they made the angels, who are the servants of the All-Merciful, females), in the sense of: the plural of ʿabd (servant). So the meaning of the sentence according to the reading of these is: and they made Allah's angels, who are His creatures and servants, into daughters of Allah, and they described them as female by characterizing them as women.
And the correct view regarding that, according to me, is that they are two well-known readings in the recitations of the regions, both correct in meaning, and with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he is correct, for the angels are servants of Allah and are with Him.
They also differed over the reading of His statement: ( أَشَهِدُوا خَلْقَهُمْ ) (Did they witness their creation?). Some of the reciters of Medina read it as "ushhidū khalqahum" (were they made to witness their creation) with a ḍamma on the alif, in the passive form whose agent is not named, in the sense of: did Allah make these polytheists — who make Allah's angels into women — witnesses to the creation of His angels who are with Him, so that they knew what they are, and that they are female, and therefore described them thus on the basis of their knowledge about them and their beholding of them? Then they brought it back to the passive form whose agent is not named.
And it was read with a fatḥa on the alif, in the sense of: did they witness that, so that they knew it? And the correct view regarding that, according to me, is that they are two well-known readings, and with whichever of the two the reciter recites, he is correct.
And His statement: ( سَتُكْتَبُ شَهَادَتُهُمْ ) (Their testimony shall be written down) The Exalted, whose praise is mentioned, says: the testimony of these who say: the angels are the daughters of Allah, shall be written down in this world, with that to which they testified against them, and they shall in the Hereafter be questioned about that testimony of theirs so as to provide a proof of its truth, but they shall find no way to that.
