117إِن يَدعونَ مِن دونِهِ إِلّا إِناثًا وَإِن يَدعونَ إِلّا شَيطانًا مَريدًاMuhammad AsadIn His stead, they invoke only lifeless symbols1 - thus invoking none but a rebellious SatanThe term inath (which is the plural of untha, "a female being") seems to have been applied by the pre-Islamic Arabs to their idols, probably because most of them were considered to be female. Hence, according to some philologists, the plural form inath signifies "inanimate things" (cf. Lane I, 112). Ibn Abbas, Qatadah and Al-Hasan al-Basri explain it as denoting anything that is passive and lifeless (Tabari); this definition has been adopted by Raghib as well. On the other hand, Tabari mentions a Tradition, on the authority of Urwah, according to which a copy of the Qur'an in the possession of Aishah contained the word awthan ("idols") instead of inath (cf. also Zamakhshari and Ibn Kathir). The rendering "lifeless symbols" is most appropriate in this context inasmuch as it adequately combines the concept of "idols" with that of "inanimate things".