The Quran

ضَرَبَ لَكُم مَثَلًا مِن أَنفُسِكُم ۖ هَل لَكُم مِن ما مَلَكَت أَيمانُكُم مِن شُرَكاءَ في ما رَزَقناكُم فَأَنتُم فيهِ سَواءٌ تَخافونَهُم كَخيفَتِكُم أَنفُسَكُم ۚ كَذٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الآياتِ لِقَومٍ يَعقِلونَ

Muhammad Asad

He propounds unto you a parable drawn from your own life:¹ Would you [agree to] have some of those Whom your right hands possess² as [full-fledged] partners in whatever We may have bestowed upon you as sustenance, so that you [and they] would have equal shares in it, and you would fear [to make use of it without consulting] them, just as you might fear [the more powerful of] your equals?³ Thus clearly do We spell out these messages unto people who use their reason.

Lit., "a parable (mathal) from yourselves".
I.e., slaves or persons otherwise subject to one's authority.
Lit., "yourselves" - i.e., "those who are equal to you in status". The question is, of course, rhetorical, and must be answered in the negative. But if (so the implied argument goes) a human master would not willingly accept his slaves as full-fledged partners - even though master and slave are essentially equal by virtue of the humanness common to both of them (Zamakhshari) - how can man regard any created beings or things as equal to Him who is their absolute Lord and Master, and is beyond comparison with anything that exists or could ever exist? (Parables 'with a similar purport are found in 16:75-76.