Answer
Asalamu Alaikum,
Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question.
Dr. Shabir Ally addresses this question in the video below:
Transcript:
Aisha Khaja: So, Dr. Shabir, the question is–why does Allah, in a few places in the Quran, seemingly denigrate women when He says things like–you take sons for yourselves, but assigned daughters to God. And then, they [the questioner] say that this tone seems to be referring to women as putting them off.
Dr. Shabir Ally: Yeah, the point to understand here is that the Quran is a book including arguments. Like it’s arguing with the people at the time.
And when the people at the time had taken certain things and objects for gods, and they had said—okay, God has daughters, and the angels are the daughters of God.
Well, the Quran is actually using an argument against them. When you don’t like daughters yourself, and you prefer sons–like why do you attribute to God that God has, well, anything, either sons or daughters, or any kind of relationship? Because the Quran is denying all of these.
But in this particular context, the Quran is using their argument against themselves. They would not prefer to have daughters because they think that daughters are somehow like second-class. So, God is asking them now, if you don’t like daughters yourself, and you think that daughters are second-class, well, why are you attributing them to God?
So, it’s really, the object is to convince them that God has neither sons, nor daughters, or any such relationship. It’s not to denigrate women at all.
I hope this helps answer your question. Please keep in touch.
Walaikum Asalam.
Please continue feeding your curiosity, and find more info in the following links:
Out Of Context – Women’s Rights In The Qur’an