Page 526
ʾin hiya ʾillā ʾasmāʾun sammaytumūhā ʾantum wa-ʾābāʾukum mā ʾanzala llāhu bihā min sulṭānin ʾin yattabiʿūna ʾillā ẓ-ẓanna wa-mā tahwā l-ʾanfusu wa-la-qad jāʾahum min rabbihimu l-hudā
These are but names, which you have coined—you and your fathers—for which Allah has not sent down any authority. They follow nothing but conjectures and the desires of the [lower] soul, while there has already come to them the guidance from their Lord.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Najm - Verse 23
23. They are but names which you have named, you and your fathers, for which Allah has sent down no authority as to their veracity. Polytheists follow but a guess and that which they themselves desire, whereas there has surely come unto them the Guidance from their Lord!
The Qur’anic term sultan designates 'argument' which results in scholarly authority. Idolaters maintained that each and every idol represented a certain issue, e.g. might, knowledge, love, and wrath. The Holy Qur’an says that such pompous titles are devoid of usefulness and these names bear no significance. Thus, the blessed Verse in question is saying that these idols which are your objects of worship to which you give rank and state are nothing but names devoid of significance.
They are inanimate objects devoid of truth. They lack authority and it is out of your ignorance and concupiscent desires that you imagine that they may be of any use and thereby take recourse to worshipping them in order to attain proximity to God Almighty. It is a source of surprise. How may man who claims to possess intellect and knowledge and regards himself as the most superior creature bows down to an inanimate and manmade object and invokes it to answer his invocations and ascribes an exalted state to it without any proof and regards it as an intermediary between himself and God Almighty?
As it is reflected elsewhere in the Holy Qur’an14:
"We worship them only that they may bring us near to Allah,"
but they were unaware that proximity to God Almighty is not attainable in such manner as one who purifies his heart from natural and moral impurities and obeys Divine Command and Messengers of Allah and fosters His love in his heart will attain to utmost closeness to God Almighty. It is also worthy of note that there is no need to intermediaries in attaining to Divine Favors. Beliefs are supposed to rest upon arguments since conjecture and imitation are insufficient and error is consequent to fostering concupiscent desires. As it is reflected at the close of the blessed Verse, God Almighty has provided mankind with His Final and Decisive Argument through sending down His Revelation thereafter there remains no room for producing pretexts.
Footnotes