God strikes a similitude mathalan this is substituted by the following ‘abdan mamlūkan a slave who is a chattel mamlūkan an adjective to distinguish him this type of slave from a free man who is the servant of God alone having no power over anything since he has no mastery and one on whom man is an indefinite noun adjectivally qualified in other words a free man We have bestowed a fair provision from Us such that he spends thereof secretly and openly that is disposing of it as he wishes the first similitude is for the idols while the second is His exalted be He. Are they equal? the powerless slaves and the dispensing free men? No. Praise belongs to God alone. But most of them that is the people of Mecca do not know the chastisement they will come to and so they associate others with God.
