Qatādah said, “So what do you think He will do to you when you meet Him after you have worshipped other than Him?”

He also said to them, “Do they hear you when you call on them, or do they benefit you or harm you?” They answered, “No; but we found our forefathers doing the same.” (ash-Shuʿarāʾ 26:72–74)

They thus conceded that the idols hear no supplicant, bring no benefit, and inflict no harm. Their only motive for worshipping them was to imitate their predecessors—people like themselves in misguidance, ignorant fathers. Hence he told them, “Have you considered what you have been worshipping—you and your earliest forefathers? They are enemies to me, except the Lord of all worlds.” (ash-Shuʿarāʾ 26:75–77)

This is a decisive proof that the idols they claimed to be gods are false: he repudiated them and belittled them; had they been able to harm, they would have harmed him, and had they possessed any power, it would have affected him.

“They said, ‘Have you come to us with the truth, or are you of those who jest?’” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:55)

In other words: “These words by which you demean our gods and criticize our forefathers—are you uttering them seriously and in earnest, or are you merely playing?”

“He said, ‘Rather, your Lord is the Lord of the heavens and the earth who originated them, and I am among those who bear witness to that.’” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:56) That is, “I am speaking to you sincerely and truthfully. Your only deity is Allah—there is no god but He—your Lord and the Lord of everything, the Originator of the heavens and the earth, who created them without any prior model. He alone deserves worship, without partner; and I am among those who testify to this.”

“And, by Allah, I shall surely plot against your idols after you have turned your backs and gone away.” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:57) He swore that he would scheme against the idols they worship once they had set off for their festival.

It is said that he said this quietly to himself. Ibn Masʿūd related that some of them heard him. They had a festival they attended once each year outside the town, and his father invited him to go. He replied, “I am sick,” as the Most High says: “He cast a glance at the stars and said, ‘Indeed, I am sick.’” (aṣ-Ṣāffāt 37:88–89) Thus he hinted in his speech so that he might achieve his aim of humiliating their idols and upholding Allah’s true religion by exposing the falsity of their worship—idols that deserve to be broken and utterly disgraced.

When they went out to their festival and he remained in their city, “he slipped over to their gods” (aṣ-Ṣāffāt 37:91)—that is, he went to them quickly and secretly. He found them in a great hall, and they had placed before them various kinds of food as offerings. In mockery and contempt he said, “Will you not eat? What is the matter with you that you do not speak?” (aṣ-Ṣāffāt 37:91–92)

“Then he turned upon them, striking them with his right hand” (aṣ-Ṣāffāt 37:93), for the right hand is stronger, more forceful, swifter, and more overpowering. He smashed them with an axe in his hand, as the Most High says: “He reduced them to fragments” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:58)—that is, to pieces. He broke them all “except the largest of them, so that they might return to it.” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:58) It is said that he placed the axe in the hand of the largest idol to suggest that it had been angered by the worship of those smaller ones beside it.

When they returned from their festival and saw what had befallen their deity, they said, “Who has done this to our gods? He must indeed be one of the wrongdoers.” (al-Anbiyāʾ 21:59)