Saba (Sheba)

40. “And on the Day when He will muster them all together then He will say to the angels: ‘Did these worship you?’”

41. “They (the angels) will say: ‘Glory be to You. You are our Guardian, not they, nay rather, they were worshipping the jinn, (while) most of them were believers in them’.”

In Hereafter, besides reprimanding the polytheists, Allah asks from the objects of worship. He asks whether they called them to polytheism, so that it proves that the objects of worship themselves condemn this action. So, in this verse, the Qur’an implies that in Hereafter He musters all, including the worshippers and the objects of worship.

The verse says:

“And on the Day when He will muster them all together then He will say to the angels: ‘Did these worship you?’”

It is evident that this question is not an inquiry that can disclose an unknown thing for the Pure Essence of Allah, because He is Omniscient; the aim is that the facts might be said by the angels’ statements, so that this group of wrong worshippers might become abashed and ashamed, and know that the angels are completely hateful of their action and that they become hopeless for ever.

Mentioning ‘angels’ out of all objects of worship that the polytheists had, is either for the sake that the angels were the most honoured creatures that they used to worship.

Or it is for the sake that the idolaters considered the pieces of stone and wood as the symbol of the heavenly creatures (angels, spirits, and prophets) and they worshipped them under this title. It is cited in the history of idolatry among Arabs that once when ‘Amr-ubn-Luha had travelled to Syria saw some people who were worshipping their idols.

He asked them about that action and they answered that they were some gods that they had made in the shapes of heavenly creatures in order to get help from them and by means of them they asked for rain.

‘Amr-ubn-Luha liked it and followed their idea and he brought an idol with him to Arabia as a present, and since then idolatry began there and continued until when Islam came and rooted it out.

Now we refer to the response of the angel in answer to the question of Allah.

They will choose the most inclusive and the most polite answer as the verse says:

“They (the angels) will say: ‘Glory be to You. You are our Guardian, not they, nay rather, they were worshipping the jinn, (while) most of them were believers in them’.”

Concerning the kind of the concept of the answer of the angels, commentators have delivered various ideas and each of them has rendered it differently. But what seems nearer to the fact is that: the purpose of ‘jinn’ is Satan and other evil beings that encouraged the idol-worshippers to this action and decorated it in their sight.

Thus, the purpose of ‘worshipping the jinn’ is obeying their commands and accepting their temptations.

By expressing their hate and repudiation and announcing their dislike of this action the angels will say that the main factor of this corruption was Satans, though they apparently worshipped the angels, the real feature of it must be made manifest.

Similar to this meaning is also recited in Surah Yunus, where it says:

“And the Day We shall muster them all, then We shall say to those who associated others (with Us): ‘Get you to your place! You and your associates’, then We shall set a space between them, and their associates shall say: ‘It was not us (indeed) that you used to worship!’” 3

That is, you, indeed, used to worship your own low desires, delusions and conjectures, not us. Moreover, your worship was done neither by our command nor with our consent, and such worship is not, in fact, a real worship.