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ʾami ttakhadhū min dūnihī ʾālihatan qul hātū burhānakum hādhā dhikru man maʿiya wa-dhikru man qablī bal ʾaktharuhum lā yaʿlamūna l-ḥaqqa fa-hum muʿriḍūna
Have they taken gods besides Him? Say, ‘Produce your evidence! This is a precept of those who are with me, and a precept of those [who went] before me.’ But most of them do not know the truth, and so they are disregardful.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-’Anbiya’ – Verse 24
24. “Or have they taken other gods besides Him? Say: ‘Bring your proof! This (Qur’an) is the remembrance of those who are with me, and the remembrance of those before me. But most of them do not know the truth, so they are averse’.”
This verse contains two more reasons upon the negation of polytheism. These couple of evidences together with the previous evidence makes three proofs in that field. At first it says:
This statement indicates that if you relinquish the previous reasoning upon the fact that the regulation of the world of existence is the evidence to Unity, there is at least, no reason to prove the deity of these gods. How then does a wise person accept something without any reason? Then, the Qur’an points to the last reason here, where from the tongue of the Prophet (S) it implies that this is not only the word of mine and that of my companions’, who talk upon Unity, but this is also the saying of the prophets before me.
The verse says:
This reasoning is the same reasoning that the scholars of theology bring under the title of ‘the consensus of prophets upon the Oneness of Allah’. And, since sometimes it happens that the abundance of idle worshippers causes some persons not to accept Unity, the Qur’an continues as follows:
The opposition of the majority of the ignorant people against the truth in many societies has always been an evidence taken by some unaware ones for their turning away. And, the Holy Qur’an has seriously condemned reliance on majority. However, Ali (as) said:
“By the descent of the Qur’an to the Prophet (S), the knowledge of the former prophets, and the knowledge of Allah’s saints, and the knowledge of whatever will happen until the Resurrection have been given to him (S).”
Then Imam Ali (as) recited the above-mentioned verse:
Therefore, the Qur’an continues the knowledge of whatever had been before and whatever exists now and whatever will be in future.5
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