inflicted the harm, this would be like the words of Abraham, Allah’s intimate friend, concerning the idols:

“My Lord, they have led many people astray.”

Leading people astray is thus attributed to them, and this is harmful to those whom they lead astray. Likewise, Allah says:

“They increased them in nothing but ruin.”

This resembles the sayings, “The dirham and the dinar have ruined people,” and “The two red things—gold and silk—have ruined women.” Likewise, when love and infatuation with someone cause harm, people say of that beloved: “He has tormented this man, ruined him, corrupted him, killed him, and made him stumble”—even though the beloved may be entirely unaware of the man’s condition. Similarly, people say of someone who is envied that he torments those who envy him, even though he is unaware of them.

The two Sahīh collections relate from Amr ibn Awf that the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said:

“By Allah, it is not poverty that I fear for you. Rather, I fear that the world will be opened up to you as it was opened up to those before you, and that you will compete for it as they competed for it, and it will destroy you as it destroyed them.”

He thus described the world opened up to them as what destroyed them. This was because of their love of it, their eagerness for it, and their rivalry over it, even though it is an object acted upon and has no choice of its own.

The same applies to whatever is invoked and worshipped besides Allah without having commanded people to worship it—whether because it is inanimate or because it is an obedient servant of Allah, among the angels, prophets, or righteous humans and jinn. Whatever is invoked besides Allah neither benefits nor harms, yet it is the cause of the supplicant’s invoking and worshipping it. It is that person’s worship and invocation of it that has harmed him. Thus, the harm attributed to it is different from the harm denied of it.