Surah 18. Al-Kahf, Ayah 15

Lit., "Why do they not.. .", etc., in the form of a rhetorical query introducing a new sentence.

Lit., "any clear evidence [or "authority"] in their support". The adjective bayyin ("clear", "obvious", "manifest") implies an evidence accessible to reason.

I.e., invents imaginary deities and thus gives the lie to the truth of His oneness and uniqueness, or even denies His existence altogether.

Besides the heathen gods, the cult of the Emperors also became fashionable in the Roman Empire in the first three centuries of the Christian Era. The statue of Diana (Artemis) at Ephesus had been one of the wonders of the ancient world. The city was a great seaport and the capital of Roman Asia. We may therefore imagine how the heathen cults must have flourished there. St. Paul spent three years preaching there, and was mobbed and assaulted, and compelled to leave (Acts, xix. 1-4).