Al-Israa (The Night Journey)

56. “Say: Call on those whom you asserted (to be your god) besides Him; so they shall neither have the ability of removing the affliction from you, nor to change (it).”

To call on any one other than the Lord, and to put one’s hope into this matter, is merely a daydream, for no one else but Allah is able to remove the dangers or transfer them to another one or, to convert or to reduce them by any means.

Incidentally, one’s belief in intercession occurring by Allah’s saints of removing the difficulties and chastisement takes place by Allah’s permission, and is a different matter.

This verse, once again, deals with the pagans and, pursuing past discussions, the Qur’an addresses the Prophet (S) and declares:

“Say: Call on those whom you asserted (to be your god) besides Him; so they shall neither have the ability of removing the affliction from you, nor to change (it).”

In fact, this verse, as many of other verses of the Qur’an, obliterates the logic of the pagans in this way which holds that the worship of the idols is either for the sake of acquiring benefits or for the sake of repelling harms; but, they have got no power of their own to solve difficulties, nor would they be able to displace any of them.

The application of the Arabic pronoun /’allaŏina/ in this verse explains the point that the objective in here does not exclude all the worshipping objects other than ‘Allah’, but the aim expressed here refers to such objects of worship like angels, Hadrat Massih (as) and the like.