The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 166
CH. 21 AL-ANBIYA' PT. 17 وَقَالُوا اتَّخَذَ الرَّحْمَنُ وَلَدًا سُبْحَنَهُ 27. "And they say, "The Gracious BÁZÍ JEG God has taken to Himself a son. ' Holy is He. Nay, they are بَلْ عِبَادُ مُكَرَمُونَ 3 only honoured servants. 2367 لَا يَسْقُونَهُ بِالْقَوْلِ وَهُمُ بِأَمْرِهِ They speak not before He. 28 يَعْمَلُونَ speaks, and they act only by His command. 2368 "2:117; 4:172; 10:69; 19:89-90. granted the permission to any of His servants that he can intercede with Him)? He knows what is before them and what is behind them (i. e. He knows the past and the future. His knowledge is complete and all- comprehensive because full control is not possible without complete knowledge and complete knowledge is the never-failing accompaniment of absolute Unity). And they encompass nothing of His knowledge except what He pleases (i. e. man can accomplish nothing except with the help of the knowledge that he receives from God). His knowledge extends over the heavens and the earth (i. e. not an atom moves in the heavens and the earth without His permission and every particle is subject to His control). And the care of them burdens Him not (i. e. the universe will continue to exist and function under the never-failing supervision and protection of God). And He is the High (i. e. every atom of the universe bears witness to His Almightiness and He is so exalted that human reason cannot attain to full comprehension of Him); and yet He is great (i. e. He is so manifest in His great works that every honest seeker after Him can attain to communion with Him). " This is the very high and noble conception of Divine Unity which the Holy Prophet gave to the world and for which he worked and suffered. He told the people of the world that Divine Unity consists in the fact that man should rise to such a high stage of spiritual exaltation as to become completely engrossed in One God and become at one with Him. It is when man reaches this high stage of moral and spiritual development that he can be said to have attained the great object of his creation. 2367. Commentary: The words "honoured servants" point to the fact that not only Jesus but many other righteous men have been spoken of as God's sons in former Scriptures and like him they have been called God's sons only in a metaphorical sense. But they were nothing more than His honoured servants. In this respect Jesus enjoys no special prerogative. He was only one of the numerous honoured servants of God. 2080 2368. Commentary: The pronoun 'they' in this verse as the context shows refers to prophets.