21أَلَكُمُ الذَّكَرُ وَلَهُ الأُنثىٰMuhammad AsadWhy - for yourselves [you would choose only] male offspring, whereas to Him [you assign] female:1In view of the contempt which the pagan Arabs felt for their female offspring (cf. 16:57-59 and 62, as well as the corresponding notes), their attribution of "daughters" to God was particularly absurd and self-contradictory: for, quite apart from the blasphemous belief in God's having "offspring" of any kind, their ascribing to Him what they themselves despised gave the lie to their alleged "reverence" for Him whom they, too, regarded as the Supreme Being - a point which is stressed with irony in the next sentence.