Yunus (10): 18

Know that We mentioned previously that the people demanded from the Messenger (PBUH) either a Quran other than this one or a substitution of this Quran. This was because this Quran contained the denigration of the idols they had taken as gods for themselves. For this reason, Allah, the Exalted, mentioned in this passage what indicates the ugliness of idol worship, to clarify that despising and belittling them is a righteous matter and a certain path.

Know that Allah, the Exalted, recounted two things about them:

1. They used to worship idols.
2. They used to say: "These are our intercessors with Allah."

As for the first point, Allah, the Exalted, pointed out its falsehood by saying: {that which neither harms them nor benefits them}.

The refutation of this is in several ways:

1. Al-Zajjaj said: They are not harmed if they are not worshipped, nor do they benefit if they are worshipped.
2. That which is worshipped must possess a greater power than the worshipper. These idols possess absolutely no power to benefit or harm. Yet, these disbelievers are capable of acting upon these idols, sometimes improving them and sometimes corrupting them. If the worshipper is in a superior state to the worshipped, then the worship is invalid.
3. Worship is the highest form of veneration, and it is only fitting for the one from whom the greatest forms of favor originate—which is none other than Life, Intellect, Power, and the welfare of this life and the Hereafter. Since all benefits and harms come from Allah, the Glorified and Exalted, worship is due only to Allah, the Glorified and Exalted.

As for the second point—what Allah recounted about them in this verse, which is their saying: {These are our intercessors with Allah}—know that some people said that those disbelievers imagined that worshipping idols was a more intense way of glorifying Allah than worshipping Allah directly. They said: "We are not qualified to engage in the worship of Allah directly; rather, we engage in the worship of these idols so that they may be intercessors for us with Allah."

They differed on how they claimed the idols were intercessors with Allah, offering many opinions:

1. They believed that each region of the world was overseen by a specific spirit from the spirits of the celestial spheres. They designated a specific idol for that spirit and engaged in worshipping that idol, intending to worship that spirit. They then believed that this spirit was a servant of the Greatest God, engaged in His servitude.
2. They used to worship the stars and claimed that the stars were the ones qualified for the servitude of Allah. When they saw the stars rise and set, they fashioned specific idols and engaged in worshipping them, intending to direct worship toward the stars.
3. They placed specific talismans upon those idols and statues and drew near to them, as practitioners of talismans do.
4. They fashioned these idols and statues in the likenesses of their prophets and great figures, claiming that by worshipping these figures, those great ones would intercede for them with Allah. A parallel to this in our time is the preoccupation of many people with venerating the graves of great figures, based on the belief that by venerating their graves, those figures will intercede for them with Allah.
5. They believed that the God was a great Light, and the angels were lights. So, they fashioned the greatest idol in the image of the Greatest God, and other images for the angels.
6. Perhaps they held the doctrine of hulul (incarnation) and permitted the Divine Essence to dwell in some noble, elevated bodies.

Know that all these interpretations are false based on the proof Allah, the Exalted, mentioned, which is His saying: {And they worship besides Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them}. The refutation is based on the three arguments we previously mentioned.

{Say: Do you inform Allah of what He does not know in the heavens or on the earth?} (Subhanahu wa Ta'ala over what they associate with Him.)

Know that the commentators established one interpretation: that negating Allah's knowledge of a thing implies negating its very existence. This is because if it existed, it would necessarily be known to Allah. Since it is not known to Allah, it must not exist. This type of statement is common in vernacular usage; when a person wants to negate something about himself, he says, "Allah did not know this from me," meaning it never occurred.

It was also recited as {Atunabbi'ūna} (with tashdīd on the bā').

As for His saying: {Subhanahu wa Ta'ala 'amma yushrikūn} (Exalted is He above what they associate with Him), the purpose is to purify Allah, the Exalted, from that polytheism. Hamzah and Al-Kisā' recited {tushrikūn} (with tā' for the second person plural address). This is similar to two places in the beginning of Surah An-Nahl and all of Surah Ar-Rum, where the address is to the Prophet (PBUH).

Al-Sāhib (Al-Zamakhshari) in Al-Kashshāf said that {mā} (what) is either relative (a relative pronoun) or a verbal noun (masdar). Thus, it means: "above the partners they associate with Him," or "above their act of association."

Al-Wāḥidī said: Whoever reads with the letter tā' (tushrikūn) does so because of the preceding address: {Atunabbi'ūna Allāha} (Do you inform Allah). Whoever reads with the letter yā' (yushrikūn) implies that it is as if the Prophet (PBUH) was told: Say, "Exalted is He above what they associate with Him." It is also possible that Allah, the Glorified and Exalted, purified Himself from what they said, saying: {Subhanahu wa Ta'ala 'amma yushrikūn}.

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