Surat Az-Zukhruf Verse No. 20: Reading and listening
Translation of the verse 20 from Surah Az-Zukhruf : Number of verses 89 - - page 490 - Part 25.
﴾وَقَالُواْ لَوۡ شَآءَ ٱلرَّحۡمَٰنُ مَا عَبَدۡنَٰهُمۗ مَّا لَهُم بِذَٰلِكَ مِنۡ عِلۡمٍۖ إِنۡ هُمۡ إِلَّا يَخۡرُصُونَ ﴿
[ الزخرف: 20]
And they said: "If it had been the Will of the Most Beneficent (Allah), we should not have worshipped them (false deities)." They have no knowledge whatsoever of that. They do nothing but lie!
English - Sahih International
And they said, "If the Most Merciful had willed, we would not have worshipped them." They have of that no knowledge. They are not but falsifying.
Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi
(43:20) They say: 'Had the Merciful One so willed, we would never have worshipped these deities.' *20 But they have no knowledge of the matter and are simply conjecturing.
Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi
*20) This was their reasoning from destiny to cover up their deviation and error, and this has been the argument of the wrong-doers in every age. They argued that their worshipping the angels became possible only because Allah allowed them to do so. Had He not willed so they could not have done it; and then it had been a practice with them for centuries and no torment from Allah had descended on them, which meant that Allah did not disapprove of their this practice.