Page 364
wa-yaʿbudūna min dūni llāhi mā lā yanfaʿuhum wa-lā yaḍurruhum wa-kāna l-kāfiru ʿalā rabbihī ẓahīran
They worship besides Allah that which neither brings them any benefit nor causes them any harm, and the faithless one is ever an abettor against his Lord.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Furqan - Verse 55
55. “And they worship besides Allah (things) which neither profit them nor harm them; and the infidel is a helper (of aberration) against his Lord.”
No reason and logic polytheists have got for worshipping their idols. Harm and benefit is only in the hand of Allah, not others. Finally, in the above verse, the deviation of polytheists from the principle of monotheism, which is comparing the power of idols with Allah’s power and some of which are mentioned in the previous verses, is brought up. The Holy Qur’an says:
It is certain that benefit and harm can not be the only criterion of worshipping, but by mentioning this the Qur’an intends to say that they have no pretext for worshiping idols, for idols are some objects that have no value, no positive and negative effect. At the end of the verse, the Qur’an adds:
They are not alone in their deviated path and they certainly help each other. The powers which must be mobilized for the sake of Allah, are organized against Allah, His Prophet (S), and the true believers. If we see that some of commentators have interpreted the Qur’anic word /kafir/ (disbeliever) here as ’Abū Jahl, they want to mention a clear extension, otherwise, the Arabic word /kafir/ has got extensive meaning everywhere which includes all disbelievers.