وَيُنذِرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُوا اتَّخَذَ اللَّهُ وَلَداً

4. And to warn those who say: "God has taken to Him a child."¹

1. It is clear that in the early years of Islam, some among the Jews and Christians supported the Makkan polytheists in their hostilities. The previous sūrah ends by declaring that God has not taken to Himself a child, and this sūrah begins by declaring the same truth. By pronouncing that God has not taken to Himself a child, the Qur'ān is saying that God has no offspring, and it categorically rejects the polytheists who claim that He has taken angels for daughters; the Christians who assert that Jesus is the son of God; and the claim of some Jews that Ezra is the son of God.

As has been generally accepted by Qur'ānic commentators, the Companions of the Cave, whose exemplary story will be told in the following verses, were among the monotheistic followers of Jesus. The fact that the sūrah begins by rejecting the notion of Divine fatherhood may be meant to underline the truth of this view.