Az-Zumar · Makki · ayah 43 of 75

Az-Zumar 39:43

أَمِ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ شُفَعَآءَ ۚ قُلْ أَوَلَوْ كَانُوا۟ لَا يَمْلِكُونَ شَيْـًٔا وَلَا يَعْقِلُونَ

“Or have they taken other than Allāh as intercessors? Say, "Even though they do not possess [power over] anything, nor do they reason?"”

Saheeh International

Essence

An intercessor needs two things, standing and understanding; the go-betweens people take besides Allah have neither.

A reflection

The logic of the courtier

It is easy to imagine that the people of Makkah were simply foolish, bowing to stones. The commentaries paint a more interesting picture, and a more uncomfortable one.

One commentary records the objection they raised. We do not worship these idols believing they create or destroy, they said. They are images of people who were close to Allah. We honour them so that those great ones will intercede for us. The surah itself quotes the same claim near its opening: we only worship them so that they bring us nearer to Allah (39:3).

That is not stupidity. It is a familiar logic. Picture a father whose son has been turned down by an oversubscribed school. He does not write to the head teacher. He rings a friend who plays golf with the head teacher's brother. That is how the world works, he thinks. Great people are reached through those close to them.

A later scholar put his finger on exactly this. They measured the Lord against kings and great men, he wrote. A king is reached through his courtiers and favourites. So they built courtiers for Allah.

And here the analogy breaks. A king needs his courtiers. His rule stands on their support. If he refuses their requests, they may turn against him. So he accepts their intercession even when he dislikes it. That is precisely what Allah is not. He needs no one. No one props up His kingdom. Nobody can pressure Him into a favour.

So the polytheists were not too religious. They were too small in their picture of God. They imagined a Ruler who could be lobbied, because the only rulers they knew could be.

What remains is a question worth asking of ourselves. Whose 'courtiers' do we cultivate, imagining that outcomes are secured through the right contacts rather than through the One who owns every outcome?

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.