Transliteration:( Afamany yakhluqu kamallaa yakhluq; afalaa tazak karoon )
"Can then the One who creates be like one who does not create [34]? Will you not then take admonition [35]?"
This verse directly refutes the beliefs of the Arab polytheists, who, despite not considering their idols as creators, still treated them as equals to Allah in reverence and worship.
The verse establishes a rational argument: How can one who does not create be considered equal to the One who creates everything? Since idols are lifeless and powerless, they cannot be equal to Allah, the sole Creator, and thus are not worthy of worship. This reasoning is presented to expose the contradiction in their belief system and to guide them back to monotheism.
This verse also clarifies that while respect is due to Allah and also to His special servants, worship must be directed to Allah alone.
In true worship, the object of devotion is regarded as divine or as sharing in Allah's attributes, which is shirk (polytheism). For example, in salah, there is reverence for the Ka‘bah, but the worship is for Allah alone.
On the other hand, the prostration of a polytheist to an idol is both an act of respect and worship toward the idol itself, which makes it blatant shirk.
Similarly, a believer’s respect for Zamzam water is based on faith in Allah, while a polytheist’s veneration of the water of the Ganges stems from false beliefs, making it an act of polytheism. This verse calls people to differentiate clearly between reverence and worship, and to direct true worship only to Allah.
The tafsir of Surah An-Nahl verse 17 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Nahl ayat 14 which provides the complete commentary from verse 14 through 18.
(16:17) Is then the One Who creates like the one who does not create?[16] Will you not, then, take heed?
16. That is, if you, people of Makkah, acknowledge (and they acknowledged this just as other mushriks did) that Allah alone is the Creator of all of you and everything, and no one of the partners, you have set up with Him, has created anything in the universe. How is it, then, that you ascribe from among the creation, a status equal to or like that of the Creator in the system of universe created by Him? How can it be possible that the power and the rights of the creation should be equal to the power and the rights of the Creator in the universe created by Himself? How can it be believed that the Creator and the creation possess the same qualities and characteristics, or can have such relationship as of father and son?
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