(194–196) “Those whom you invoke besides Allah are servants like yourselves. So invoke them and let them answer you, if you are truthful. Do they have feet with which they walk, hands with which they grasp, eyes with which they see, or ears with which they hear? Say, ‘Call upon your partners, then plot against me and give me no respite.’”

This is a challenge to the polytheists who worship idols. Allah Most High says: “Those whom you invoke besides Allah are servants like yourselves.” That is, there is no difference between you and them: you are all servants owned by Allah. If, as you claim, you are truthful in asserting that they deserve any share of worship, then “invoke them and let them answer you.” If they answer you and secure what you seek, your claim is vindicated; otherwise, it becomes clear that you are lying in this claim and fabricating the gravest falsehood against Allah.

This requires no further clarification, for when you look at them, their very appearance shows that they possess no power to benefit anyone. They have no feet with which to walk, no hands with which to grasp, no eyes with which to see, and no ears with which to hear. They are devoid of all the faculties and powers found in human beings.

If they do not answer when you invoke them, though they are servants like yourselves—and indeed you are more complete than they and more capable of many things—why, then, do you worship them?

“Say, ‘Call upon your partners, then plot against me and give me no respite.’” That is: join together, you and your partners, to inflict evil and harm upon me, without any delay or respite (1), for you will never succeed in causing me any harm.