Ali Quli Qarai, The Qur’ān with a Phrase-by-Phrase English Translation (2005)
his face becomes darkened1
and he chokes with suppressed agony, [and says]
18 ‘What! One who is brought up amid ornaments
and is inconspicuous in contests?’
19 And they have made the angels
— who are servants of the All-beneficent —
females.
Were they witness to their creation?
Their testimony will be written down
and they shall be questioned.
20 They say, ‘Had the All-beneficent wished,
we would not have worshipped them.’2
They do not have any knowledge of that,
and they do nothing but surmise.
21 Did We give them a Book before this,
so that they are holding fast to it?
22 Rather they say, ‘We found our fathers
following a creed,
and we are indeed guided in their footsteps.’
23 And so it has been that We did not send
any warner to a town before you,
without its affluent ones saying,
‘We found our fathers following a creed
and we are indeed following in their footsteps.’
24 He would say, ‘What! Even if I bring you
a better guidance than what you found
your fathers following?!’ They would say,
1 That is, when he is brought the news of the birth of a daughter.
2 That is, the gods worshiped by the polytheists. Cf. 16:35.
