In the name of God, the Lord of Grace, the Ever Merciful Whenever the son of Mary is cited as an example, your people raise an outcry, saying: ‘Who is better: Our deities or he?’ They cite him only to challenge you. They are contentious people. He was but a servant of Ours whom We had favored and made an example to the Children of Israel. (Gold; Al-Zukhruf: 43: 57-59)

These verses begin the final passage of this surah, which picks up the legends the pagan Arabs weaved around their worship of angels. It refers to one of the arguments they used to defend their absurd beliefs. It was a futile argument that reflected no attempt to arrive at the truth; it was more an exercise in polemics. They had been told that both they and what they worshipped were bound for hell. The reference here being to their idols that were first intended as representations of angels, but which were later worshipped as deities. They were told that whoever worshipped anything other than God will be in hell together with the thing worshipped. In response, some of them cited the example of Jesus (peace be upon him), who was worshipped by some of those who deviated from true Christianity. They asked whether Jesus would also be in hell? This was nothing but idle argument. They also claimed that they were better guided than the Christians who worshipped Jesus, a human being, while they worshipped the angels, God’s daughters. All this was no more than compounded falsehood. In connection with this, the surah gives an account of Jesus, explaining the truth about him and his message, and the differences that gripped his people both before and after him.

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