Fastaftihim alirabbika albanatu walahumu albanoon (surah Assaaffat: 149)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(37:149) So ask their opinion: *86 '(Are you convinced) that your Lord should have daughters and you should have sons? *87

Fastaftihim ali Rabbikal banaatu wa lahumul banoon

*86) Another theme starts from here. In the preceding theme that started from v. 11, the Quraish had been put this question: "Ask them: what is more difficult: their own creation or of those things that We have created?" Now, they are being asked this second question. The object of the first question was to warn the disbelievers of their deviation because of which they regarded life-after-death and the meting out of rewards and punishments as impossible, and therefore, mocked the Holy Prophet for it. Now they are being asked this second question to warn them of their ignorance due to which they attributed children to Allah and would join anybody with Allah in any relationship they liked on mere conjecture.
>*87) Traditions show that in Arabia the tribes of Quraish, Juhainah, Bani Salimah, Khuza'ah, Bani Mulaih, etc., held the belief that the angels were Allah's daughters. This belief of their ignorance has been referred to at several places in the Qur'an, e.g. in An-Nisa': 117, An-Nahl: 57-58, Bani Isra'il: 40, Az-Zukhruf: 16; 19, An-Najm: 21-27.