And he said concerning the words of Allah Most High:

“And among people is one who worships Allah on the very edge: if good befalls him, he is reassured by it; but if a trial befalls him, he turns back on his face. He loses both this world and the Hereafter. That is the manifest loss.”

“He invokes besides Allah what can neither harm nor benefit him. That is straying far indeed.”

“He invokes one whose harm is nearer than his benefit. What an evil protector and what an evil companion!”

The latter part of this verse has perplexed many people, as a number of commentators have stated, including al-Tha‘labī and al-Baghawī. The wording here is al-Baghawī’s. He said: “This verse is among the difficult passages of the Quran, and it raises several questions. The first: they said that Allah Most High states in the first verse, ‘He invokes besides Allah what cannot harm him,’ meaning that abandoning its worship cannot harm him. His words, ‘one whose harm,’ mean the harm resulting from worshipping it.”

I say: This is one answer.

The author of al-Kashshāf mentioned a different answer. He said: “If you say, ‘Harm and benefit are denied of idols in one verse but affirmed of them in the other, and this is a contradiction,’ I say: Once the meaning is understood, this misconception disappears. Allah exposes the unbeliever’s folly in worshipping an inanimate object that has no power to harm or benefit, while, in his ignorance and misguidance, he believes concerning it