Overall meaning : The Almighty states that those who ascribe partners to Him will say, 'Had Allah, who is aware of our actions, willed, neither we nor our fathers would have worshipped other gods besides Him; nor would we have declared anything He has allowed unlawful. Since He has not willed otherwise, this means He approves of our actions.’ In the same way, Allah Almighty warns, the wicked unbelievers before them continued to deny the message His prophets had brought them until they tasted His severe punishment. He then instructs His Prophet, Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, to ask them to go ahead and bring forth any sound, authoritative knowledge to support their claim that Allah is pleased with them, and to tell them that they follow only false assumptions and they only tell lies about Allah by inventing falsehood and attributing them to Him. He also directs him to tell them that Allah alone has conclusive evidence that makes the truth perfectly clear and puts an end to all their excuses and that, had He so pleased He would have guided them all to the truth. He further instructs him to ask them to produce their witnesses who can testify that Allah has truly forbidden what they have declared unlawful, falsely ascribing such prohibitions to Him. He forbids him to accept and believe their testimony if they do bring such witnesses as they are wicked liars, and not to follow the whims of these people who deny Allah’s revelations, disbelieve in the life to come and set up other gods as equals with Him.