Surah Al-Ahqaf (46) — Ayah 5

(Ayah 5) {وَ مَنْ اَضَلُّ مِمَّنْ يَّدْعُوْا مِنْ دُوْنِ اللّٰهِ … :} This interrogative is for the purpose of denial, meaning: is there anyone more astray than the one who calls upon beings other than Allah, who cannot respond to their call until the Day of Resurrection, because they do not have this power, rather, they are not even aware of their calling. Generally, these are taken to mean stones and idols, but the word {’’مَنْ‘‘} is used for those with intellect, so by this are meant all those beings whom people call upon besides Allah, including humans, jinn, angels, prophets, saints, the righteous, the wicked, the living, and the dead. As for stones, idols, and graves, etc., even when the polytheists call upon and worship them, in reality, they are calling upon those beings whose idols or graves they are, otherwise, what need was there to make idols, they could have worshipped any stone. Thus, the polytheists of Arabia had placed images of Ibrahim and Ismail (peace be upon them) inside the Ka'bah itself, which were removed from the Ka'bah by the order of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) at the time of the conquest of Makkah. (See Bukhari: 4288)

From this verse, it is understood that no one besides Allah hears anyone's call nor can come to their aid. The Qur'an has repeated this matter many times, as He said: « وَ الَّذِيْنَ تَدْعُوْنَ مِنْ دُوْنِهٖ مَا يَمْلِكُوْنَ مِنْ قِطْمِيْرٍ (13) اِنْ تَدْعُوْهُمْ لَا يَسْمَعُوْا دُعَآءَكُمْ وَ لَوْ سَمِعُوْا مَا اسْتَجَابُوْا لَكُمْ وَ يَوْمَ الْقِيٰمَةِ يَكْفُرُوْنَ بِشِرْكِكُمْ وَ لَا يُنَبِّئُكَ مِثْلُ خَبِيْرٍ» [ فاطر : ۱۳، ۱۴ ] "And those whom you call upon besides Him do not possess even the thin membrane of a date stone. If you call upon them, they do not hear your call, and if they were to hear, they would not respond to you, and on the Day of Resurrection they will deny your shirk, and none can inform you like the One Who is All-Aware." And He said: « اِنَّ الَّذِيْنَ تَدْعُوْنَ مِنْ دُوْنِ اللّٰهِ عِبَادٌ اَمْثَالُكُمْ فَادْعُوْهُمْ فَلْيَسْتَجِيْبُوْا لَكُمْ اِنْ كُنْتُمْ صٰدِقِيْنَ » [ الأعراف : ۱۹۴ ] "Indeed, those whom you call upon besides Allah are servants like you, so call upon them and let them respond to you, if you should be truthful." And He said: «لَهٗ دَعْوَةُ الْحَقِّ وَ الَّذِيْنَ يَدْعُوْنَ مِنْ دُوْنِهٖ لَا يَسْتَجِيْبُوْنَ۠ لَهُمْ بِشَيْءٍ اِلَّا كَبَاسِطِ كَفَّيْهِ اِلَى الْمَآءِ لِيَبْلُغَ فَاهُ وَ مَا هُوَ بِبَالِغِهٖ وَ مَا دُعَآءُ الْكٰفِرِيْنَ اِلَّا فِيْ ضَلٰلٍ » [الرعد : ۱۴ ] "The true call is only to Him, and those whom they call upon besides Him do not respond to them at all, except as one who stretches his hands towards water so that it may reach his mouth, but it will never reach it. And the call of the disbelievers is nothing but in vain." Readers, to understand the meaning of {’’ لَا يَسْتَجِيْبُ ‘‘}, take a little effort to also look at the commentary of the above-mentioned places.

5. 1. That is, these are the greatest of the misguided who call upon stone idols for help, who are incapable of responding until the Day of Resurrection. And not only are they incapable, but they are completely unaware.

5. And who is more astray than one who calls upon others besides Allah—those who will not answer him until the Day of Resurrection [6], and who are unaware of their supplication?

[6]
The Two Meanings of Istijabah and the Refutation of the Polytheists:

Here, the word "istijabah" conveys two types of meanings, and both are included in the concept of this word. The first is that one who cannot even hear, how can he respond? For example, if someone were to ask a stone or a tree, "Which way is Lahore?"—since it cannot hear, how could it possibly answer? The second meaning of this word is to hear someone's supplication or call and to accept it and act upon it. For example, I pray to Allah to cure me of this illness, and Allah truly honors my call with acceptance and removes my illness, then I would say my supplication has been answered. From this, it becomes clearly evident that here, the objects of worship also include inanimate deities who cannot hear at all, as well as living beings such as angels, jinn, and living saints, etc., who can hear but have no authority to act upon such supplication or request. The misguidance and extreme misguidance of the polytheists is that they present their requests before such things or beings upon whom the implementation of the request is not within their domain of authority at all. A simple example of this is to understand that a person wants to have a telephone installed in his house, but he sends his request to the police department; it is obvious that this foolish person's request will never be acted upon. This is exactly the example of those polytheists who call upon others besides Allah.