Waqaloo aalihatuna khayrun am huwa ma daraboohu laka illa jadalan bal hum qawmun khasimoona
English
Ahmed Ali
And say: "Are our deities better or he?" They say this only for disputing. Surely they are a contentious people.
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Tafseer
'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī
تفسير : (and say) i.e. 'abdullah al-zib'ari: (are our gods better) o muhammad, (or is he) i.e. jesus the son of mary? for if he is allowed in the fire with the christians, we are also allowed therein with our deities. (they raise not the objection) they do not mention jesus the son of mary (save for argument) save for wrangling and dispute. (nay! but they are a contentious folk) they argue in defence of falsehood.
Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī
تفسير : and they say, ‘are our gods better or he?’, jesus. we are satisfied that our gods be [in the same predicament] with him. they only cite this, that is, the example, to you for the sake of contention, [merely] arguing with falsehood, for they know that [the particle] mā [of wa-mā ta‘budūna, ‘and what you worship’] refers [only] to non-rational beings and cannot therefore include jesus, peace be upon him. nay, but they are a contentious lot, an extremely disputatious folk.
