Qul araaytum ma tadAAoona min dooni Allahi aroonee matha khalaqoo mina al-ardi (surah Ahqaf: 4)

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

(46:4) Tell them, (O Prophet): 'Did you consider those whom you call upon beside Allah? Show me, which part of the earth they created? Or do they have any share in creating the heavens? Bring to me any Scripture earlier than this one, or any vestige of knowledge (in support of your belief) if you are truthful. *4

Qul ara`aytum maa tad`oona min doonil laahi aroonee maazaa khalaqoo minal ardi am lahum shirkun fis samaawaati eetoonee bi kitaabim min qabli haazaaa aw asaaratim min `ilmin in kuntum saadiqeen

*4) As the addresses are a polytheistic people they are being told the reality of the irrational crced in which they persisted carelessly due to lack of the sense of responsibility. Along with acknowledging Allah as the Creator of the universe they had made many other beings their deities: they invoked them, regarded them as fulfillers of their needs and removers of hardships: prostrated themselves and made offerings before them, and thought they had the powers of making and unmaking of heir destinies. About the same beings, they are being asked: "On what basis have you made them your deities ?" Obviously, there can be only two bases for regarding someone as an associate in worship along with Allah: either man himself should know through some means of knowledge that his deity too has a share in making the earth and heavens, or Allah Himself may have stated that soand-so also is His associate in the functions of Godhead. Now, if a polytheist can neither make the claim that he possesses direct knowledge of his deity's being an associate of God, nor he can show in a Book sent by God that God Himself has appointed somebody as His associate, his creed would inevitably be baseless.
In this verse, "a Book revealed before this" implies a Book sent by Allah before the Qur'an, and "some remnant" of knowledge implies some part of the teachings of the Prophets and righteous men of the ancient times, which may have reached the later generations reliably. There is no tinge of shirk in whatever man has received through these two means. All the heavenly Books unanimously present the same Tauhid to which the Qur'an invites the people, and no existing remnant of the ancient lore bears evidence to this that some Prophet or saint or righteous man might have taught the people to serve and worship any other than God. Even if we do not take a Book to mean a Divine Book and remnant of knowledge the knowledge bequeathed by the Prophets and righteous men, no authentic book or the research made by a scholar of religious or secular lore has pointed out that such and such a thing in the earth or the heavens has been created by such and such a saint or god, or a certain blessing of the-blessings of life which man 'is benefiting from in the universe has been created by such and such a deity instead of God.