24 Preface أَمِ اتَّخَذوا مِن دونِهِ آلِهَةً ۖ قُل هاتوا بُرهانَكُم ۖ هٰذا ذِكرُ مَن مَعِيَ وَذِكرُ مَن قَبلي ۗ بَل أَكثَرُهُم لا يَعلَمونَ الحَقَّ ۖ فَهُم مُعرِضونَYusuf AliOr have they taken for worship (other) gods1 besides him? Say, “Bring your convincing proof: this is the Message of those with me and the Message of those before me.”2 But most of them know not the Truth, and so turn away.See above, n. 2682, where two kinds of false worship are noted. Now we are warned against a third danger, the worship of false gods of any sort. Pagan man is prolific of creating abstract images for worship, including Self or abstract Intelligence or Power. In verse 26 below is mentioned a fourth kind of false worship, which imagines that God begets sons or daughters.This verse should be read with the next. All reason revolts against the idea of conflicting gods, and points to Unity in Creation and Unity in Godhead. This is not only the Message of Islam (“those with me”) but the message of all prophets who came before the Holy Prophet Muḥammad (“those before me”), and the line of prophets was closed with him. The Message given to every prophet in all ages was that of Unity as the fundamental basis of Order and Design in the world, material, moral, and spiritual.