قُلْ أَرَءَيْتُم مَّا تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ أَرُونِى مَاذَا خَلَقُوا۟ مِنَ ٱلْأَرْضِ أَمْ لَهُمْ شِرْكٌ فِى ٱلسَّمَٰوَٰتِ ٱئْتُونِى بِكِتَٰبٍ مِّن قَبْلِ هَٰذَآ أَوْ أَثَٰرَةٍ مِّنْ عِلْمٍ إِن كُنتُمْ صَٰدِقِينَ
Qul araʾaytum mā tadʿūna min dūni'llāhi arūnī mādhā khalaqū mina'l-arḍi am lahum shirkun fi's-samāwāt · Iʾtūnī bi-kitābin min qabli hādhā aw athāratin min ʿilmin in kuntum ṣādiqīn
"Say: have you seen those you call upon apart from God? Show me: what have they created of the earth? Or have they a share in the heavens? Bring me a Book sent down before this, or a remnant of knowledge — if you are telling the truth."
1. Show me — arūnī mādhā khalaqū (a work visible to the eye) 2. The claim of partnership — am lahum shirkun fi's-samāwāt 3. A written or transmitted support — iʾtūnī bi-kitābin … aw athāratin min ʿilm
That is, the verse asks for two kinds of evidence: observation and transmitted report. It leaves no third way.
I record this as my own reading, and its support is the verse itself: what is demanded is not feeling, habit or numbers. And the grounds the other side will put forward throughout the sūra will be exactly these — the forefathers (in the example of ʿĀd at 21-22), social precedence (11), habit.
The root أ-ث-ر: a trace, a mark left behind. Athar — a footprint, a remnant, a report handed down. The root has occurred at several places in this commentary (al-Aʿlā, al-Nāziʿāt, al-Ḥashr).
The lexicographers transmit differing readings of what the word answers to here: a crumb of knowledge left over from the past, a report handed down, or a fragment of a written document.
The point they share is this, and it shows what the verse is doing: what is asked for is not even a whole Book — a remnant. The demand is presented reduced to its minimum. I record this as an observation: the request for evidence is framed not so as to press the other side hard but from the lowest threshold.