But when He gave them a sound one a sound child they ascribed to Him associates shurakā’a a variant reading has shirkan meaning sharīkan ‘an associate’ in that which He had given them by naming it ‘Abd al-Hārith ‘servant of al-Hārith’ when it is not right to be a ‘servant’ ‘abd of any one but ‘God’ sc. ‘Abd Allāh but this namesake ‘Abd is not an association of another with God in terms of servitude for Adam was immune from a sin such as associating others in worship with God. Samura b. Jundub reported that the Prophet s said ‘On one occasion when Eve gave birth — all the children she bore had failed to survive — Satan visited her and said to her “Name it the child ‘Abd al-Hārith and it will live.” She named it so and it lived. This affair was the result of Satan’s inspiration and his doings’ reported by al-Hākim who deemed it the report ‘sound’ sahīh and also reported by al-Tirmidhī who considered it ‘fair-uncommon’ hasan gharīb; but exalted is God above what they the people of Mecca associate in the way of idols this sentence is consequent a supplement to the one beginning with khalaqakum ‘He created you’ so that what comes between the two is a parenthetical statement.
