Tafsir Ibn Abbas: Az-Zukhruf, Ayah 45
وَسْـَٔلْ مَنْ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ مِن رُّسُلِنَآ أَجَعَلْنَا مِن دُونِ ٱلرَّحْمَٰنِ ءَالِهَةًۭ يُعْبَدُونَ
And ask those We sent before you of Our messengers; have We made besides the Most Merciful deities to be worshipped?
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And ask those of Our messengers whom We sent before you Did We ever appoint besides the Compassionate One that is to say any other than Him gods to be worshipped? It is said that this is to be understood literally in other words that God gathered for him all the messengers on the Night of the Journey; but it is also said that this meant that he should ask any communities belonging to either of the two Peoples of the Scripture. According to one of the two opinions he never asked anyone since the point of this command to ask is to affirm to the idolaters of Quraysh that no messenger or scripture ever came from God with the command to worship any other than God.
Ibn Abbas Commentary
(And ask those of Our messengers) such as Jesus, Moses and Abraham; this was on the night when he was taken up to heaven and he led in prayer 70 prophets, among whom were Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Allah commanded His Prophet, saying: ask them (whom We sent before thee) O Muhammad: (Did We ever appoint gods to be worshipped beside the Beneficent) did We command that any other deity beside the Beneficent be worshipped? It is also said that this means: ask those unto whom We sent the messengers before you, i.e. the people of Book, did We appoint any other deities beside the Beneficent to be worshipped? And it is also said that this means: ask them, did the messengers bring anything other than the profession of Allah's divine Oneness; the Prophet did not have to ask because he was certain that Allah did not appoint any other deities to be worshipped beside Him.