The Children of Israel
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[17:39]
this is part of that knowledge of right and wrong with which thy Sustainer has inspired thee.
Hence, do not set up any other deity side by side with God, lest thou be cast into hell, blamed [by thyself] and rejected [by Him]!

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* v.39 : Or: “which thy Sustainer has revealed to thee.” It is to be noted that the noun hikmah, usually signifying “wisdom,” is derived from the verb hakama (“he prevented” or “restrained [him or it],” i.e., from acting in an undesirable manner). Hence, the primary meaning of hikmah is “that which prevents one from evil or ignorant behaviour” (cf. Lane II, 617); in its positive sense, it signifies “[conscious] insight into that which is most excellent” (Lisān al-‘Arab, Tāj al-‘Arūs). Inasmuch as this term refers here, in particular, to what is “odious in God’s sight,” it implies moral discrimination (or “the knowledge of right and wrong”) on the part of men; and this, in its turn, presupposes the existence of an absolute, God-willed standard of moral values.
* Since there is no basis for an acceptance of absolute moral values – i.e., values that are independent of time and social circumstances – without a belief in God and His ultimate judgment, the passage ends, as it began, with a call to a cognition of God’s oneness and uniqueness.