“You have an excellent example in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, ‘We disavow you and whatever you worship besides Allah’”,

there was no need for another exception. As for this surah, it expresses dissociation from worshipping what they worship, not from the objects of their worship themselves. He disavows them, their worship, and what they worship.

For all of that is false, as authentically reported from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, that Allah says:

“I have no need whatsoever of partners. Whoever performs a deed in which he associates another with Me, I disavow it, and it belongs entirely to the one he associated with Me.”

Thus, the worship of one who associates partners with Allah is entirely invalid. It cannot be said that Allah’s share of it is valid while the remainder is invalid. The objects of their worship, however, are different: Allah is the true God, while all others are false gods. Hence, when Abraham, Allah’s close friend, disavowed the objects of worship, he needed to except the Lord of all worlds. Here, however, he dissociates himself from worshipping what they worship. Since what is negated is worship, he dissociates himself from worshipping the whole combination of those whom the disbelievers worship.

Third: if the negation concerns something insofar as it is their object of worship, rather than that thing itself, then he does not worship anything insofar as it is their object of worship. For insofar as it is their object of worship, they associate partners with Allah in worshipping it; worshipping it in that manner must therefore be disavowed. Had the wording been “whom you worship”, one would have said, “except the Lord of all worlds”, because the negation applies to