Transliteration:( Wa man adallu mimmany yad'oo min doonil laahi mallaa yastajeebu lahooo ilaa Yawmil Qiyaamati wa hum'an du'aaa'ihim ghaafiloon )
And who is more on the wrong way than the one who worships besides Allah [11], such ones who may not hear [12] his prayer till the Day of Resurrection, and even they are unaware [13] of such worship to them?
This verse establishes that polytheism is the gravest sin and the most severe form of misguidance. No one is more astray than the one who worships beings besides Allah, attributing divinity to what has no share in Lordship.
This indicates the utter ignorance and senselessness of polytheists—they worship stones, trees, the moon, the sun, and other lifeless or powerless entities. These cannot hear their calls nor respond to their pleas.
Here, hearing means the ability to respond to prayers and provide help—and in this sense, these deities are utterly helpless. In reality, these objects are fully aware and repulsed by such worship, and on the Day of Judgement, they will testify against this polytheism.
In this context, the deities refer to idols, as they are truly unaware of being worshipped. However, Prophets and righteous servants of Allah, whom some also wrongly worship, are fully aware of worldly happenings by Allah's will—and they are disgusted with such acts of shirk.
It is for this reason that the Prophets will testify against their followers on the Day of Judgement, disassociating themselves from those who falsely worshipped them.
The tafsir of Surah Ahqaf verse 5 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Ahqaf ayat 1 which provides the complete commentary from verse 1 through 6.
(46:5) Who is farther strayed from the Right Path than he who calls upon others than Allah that cannot answer his call till the Day of Resurrection,[5] the while they are not even conscious that callers are calling upon them?[6]
5. “Cannot respond to him”: Cannot answer the supplications of any one. That is, these gods do not possess the powers by virtue of which they could give decisions on the prayers and petitions of their devotees. For further explanation, see (Surah Az-Zumar, ayat 12) note 33.
“Until the Day of Resurrection” means that as long as the world lasts they will get no answer to their supplications and prayers from their deities, but when Resurrection will have taken place, the deities will turn hostile to their worshipers themselves, as becomes explicit from the next verse.
6. That is, they do not even hear the supplications of the supplicants, neither through their own ears nor through any other means. This thing can be elaborated like this: The being whom the polytheists the world over have been invoking are divided into three categories:
(1) Lifeless and inanimate creation.
(2) The pious men who have passed away.
(3) The wicked men who had themselves gone astray, and who misled others and passed away.
As for the first category of the deities they will naturally remain unaware of the supplications of their worshipers. As for the deities of the second kind, who were favorites with their God, there are two reasons of their remaining unaware: (a) They are in the presence of Allah in a state where human voices cannot reach them directly; and (b) even Allah and His angels do not inform them that the people whom they had been teaching to invoke Allah alone in the world, were invoking them instead, for no information could cause them a greater shock than this, and Allah does not at all like to vex the souls of His righteous servants.
Now if we consider the case of the third kind of the deities, we shall see that there are two reasons also of their remaining unaware: (a) That they have been placed in confinement as the accused, and no voice from the world can reach them; and (b) that even Allah and His angels do not convey to them the news that their mission is flourishing in the world, and the people have set them up as deities, for this news would be a happy news for them, and Allah does not like to make the wicked people happy.
In this connection, one should also understand that Allah conveys to His righteous servants the greetings of peace and prayers of mercy from the people of the world, for these things are a source of joy and pleasure for them. Likewise, He informs the culprits of the curses, censures and condemnations of the people of the world, as the disbelievers killed in the Battle of Badr were made to hear the curse of the Prophet (peace be upon him) according to a Hadith, for it is a cause of anguish for them. But anything which might cause distress to the righteous people and joy to the culprits is not conveyed to them. This explanation makes the truth about the question of hearing by the dead plain and easy to understand.
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