Transliteration:( Wa ya'budoona min doonil laahi maa laa yadurruhum wa laa yanfa'uhum wa yaqooloona haaa'ulaaa'i shufa'aaa 'unaa 'indal laah; qul 'a tunabbi 'oonal laaha bi maa laa ya'lamu fis samaawaati wa laa fil ard; subhaanahoo wa Ta'aalaa 'ammaa yushrikoon )
"And they worship besides Allah that which can neither harm them nor do any good [53]. And they say: 'These are our intercessors [54] with Allah.' Say: 'Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth [55]? Exalted is He and high above what they associate [with Him] [56]."
The verse addresses the worship of idols, emphasizing that these idols can neither harm nor benefit their worshipers. The belief in their power is misguided, as the reality is that these idols do not influence the lives of their worshipers in any meaningful way. Instead, the true reality is that these false deities cannot help or harm anyone. Thus, the worship of such idols is futile and unjustified, as no harm or benefit comes from them.
The idolaters claim that these idols are their intercessors with Allah, meaning they believe these idols can mediate between them and Allah. This claim reflects their misunderstanding of divine intercession. They had no belief in the Day of Judgment, Paradise, or Hell, and relied on false mediation to secure their position with Allah. In contrast to the Islamic concept of intercession, they believed that these idols had the power to intercede on their behalf, which made them polytheists.
The verse questions the absurdity of these claims by asking, "Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth?" This implies that if the idols had any real intercessory power, Allah would have already known about it, and it would have been part of His divine knowledge. The denial of such a claim by Allah emphasizes that intercession from idols does not exist in the divine realm.
Allah is exalted above the false associations made by the polytheists. The worship of idols and the belief in their intercession is a form of polytheism. The verse makes it clear that believing in false intercessors is not only misguided but also a form of shirk. Intercession from Prophets and saints is indeed a reality, but it is only with Allah's permission and in line with His will, not through the false claims made by idol worshippers.
18. And they worship other than Allah that which neither harms them nor benefits them, and they say, “These are our intercessors with Allah ” Say, “Do you inform Allah of something He does not know in the heavens or on the earth?” Exalted is He and high above what they associate with Him.19. And mankind was not but one community [united in religion], but [then] they differed. And if not for a word that preceded from your Lord, it would have been judged between them [immediately] concerning that over which they differ.
Allah reproaches the idolators that worshipped others beside Allah, thinking that those gods would intercede for them before Allah. Allah states that these gods do not harm or benefit. They don’t have any authority over anything, nor do they own anything. These gods can never do what the idolators had claimed about them. That is why Allah said:
(Say: `Do you inform Allah of that which He knows not in the heavens and on the earth’) Ibn Jarir said: “This means, `Are you telling Allah about what may not happen in the heavens and earth’ Allah then announced that His Glorious Self is far above their Shirk and Kufr by saying:
(Glorified and Exalted is He above all that which they associate as partners (with Him)!)
Allah then tells us that Shirk was new among mankind. It was not in existence in the beginning. He tells us that people were believers in one religion and that religion was Islam. Ibn `Abbas said: “There were ten centuries between Adam and Nuh. They were all on Islam. Then differences among people took place. They worshipped idols and rivals. So Allah sent extensive evidence and irrefutable proof with His Messengers.”
(So that those who were to be destroyed (for rejecting the faith) might be destroyed after a clear evidence, and those who were to live might live after a clear evidence.)﴿8:42﴾ Allah’s statement:
(And had not it been for a Word that went forth before from your Lord…) means that if Allah had not decreed He would not punish anyone until the evidence is established against them. And also that if He had not given creatures a respite until a defined term had passed, He would have judged among them in what they disputed. Then He would have caused the believers to be happy and delighted and the disbelievers to be miserable and wretched.
(10:18) They worship, beside Allah, those who can neither harm nor profit them, saying; ‘These are our intercessors with Allah.’ Tell them (O Muhammad): Do you inform Allah of something regarding whose existence in the heavens or on the earth He has no knowledge?[24] Holy is He and He is exalted far above what they associate with Him in His divinity’.
24. This is a fine way of saying that no such intercessors exist as can plead their cases with Allah. For if something is not in the knowledge of Allah, it implies that it does not exist at all, for everything that exists anywhere in the heavens and the earth is in His knowledge.
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