“Say, ‘Is there any of your partners who guides to the truth?’ Say, ‘Allah guides to the truth.’ Is then He who guides to the truth more worthy to be followed, or one who finds no guidance unless he is guided? What is the matter with you? How do you judge?” (35)

“And most of them follow nothing but conjecture. Indeed, conjecture avails nothing against the truth. Indeed, Allah is Knowing of what they do.” (36)

“Say, ‘Is there any of your partners who guides’”: that is, directs “to the truth?” When they answer, “No”—and they inevitably must—then say: “Allah guides to the truth”; that is, to the truth.

“Is then He who guides to the truth more worthy to be followed, or one who finds no guidance?” Hamzah and al-Kisa’i recited it with an unvocalized h sound and a single d. The other reciters read it with the d doubled. Abu Ja‘far and Qalun recited it with the h unvocalized, while Abu ‘Amr gave the h a partial vocalization, midway between an a-vowel and silence. Hafs recited the initial y with an a-vowel and the h with an i-vowel; Abu Bakr recited both with an i-vowel; and the rest recited both with an a-vowel. In every case, its meaning is: finds guidance.

Whoever read the d without doubling said: one says, “I guided him, and he was guided,” meaning, he found guidance. Whoever doubled the d assimilated the t into the d. Abu ‘Amr employed partial vocalization in accordance with his approach of preferring lightness of pronunciation. Whoever left the h unvocalized retained it in its original state, just as in taʿuddū (“you transgress”) and yakhṣimūn (“they dispute”). Whoever gave the h an a-vowel shifted to it the a-vowel of the assimilated t. Whoever gave the h an i-vowel did so because of the meeting of two unvocalized consonants; it has also been said that a jussive ending is given an i-vowel. Whoever gave the y an i-vowel along with the h made one i-vowel follow the other.

His saying, Most High, “unless he is guided”: the meaning of the verse is that Allah, who guides to the truth, is more worthy of being followed than an idol that finds no guidance unless it is guided.

If it is asked: How can He say, “unless he is guided,” when an idol cannot be conceived of as finding guidance or being guided?

The answer is that guidance, in the case of idols, means movement: they cannot move from one place to another unless they are carried and moved. This demonstrates the incapacity of idols.

Another answer is that the mention of guidance is figurative. Since the polytheists took idols as gods and assigned them the status of beings that hear and understand, they were spoken of in terms used for one who knows and understands, and they were described with the attributes of rational beings.

“What is the matter with you? How do you judge?” That is, how can you make such a judgment when you claim that Allah has a partner?

His saying, Most High, “And most of them follow nothing but conjecture”: they claim that idols are gods and that they will intercede for them in the Hereafter, merely on the basis of conjecture; no Book or messenger has conveyed this to them. By “most,” He means all those who make this claim. “Indeed, conjecture avails nothing against the truth”: that is, it will not ward off from them anything of Allah’s punishment. It is also said that conjecture cannot take the place of knowledge. “Indeed, Allah is Knowing of what they do.”