The Philosophers’ polytheism is more repugnant than the polytheism of the pre-Islamic Arabs.
For this reason, when a number of writers classified shirk according to their own speculative premises and went so far as to affirm the very kind of intercession claimed by the idolaters, the shirk they espoused proved worse than that of the pagan Arabs and others.
The Arab idolaters—and others like them—did acknowledge that the Lord acts by His will and power, that He is the Creator of all things, and that the heavens and the earth are created by God and are not co-eternal with Him. Yet they worshipped beings other than God only so that these might bring them nearer to Him and serve as intercessors on their behalf—that is, they would have those beings pray to God for them, and God would then grant the requested favor. These are the very idolaters whose unbelief the Qur’an lays bare and against whose shirk the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, fought.
Allah, Exalted be He, says:
“They worship, apart from Allah, that which can neither harm nor benefit them, and they say, ‘These are our intercessors with Allah.’” (10:18)
He also says:
“Those who take protectors besides Him say, ‘We worship them only that they may bring us nearer to Allah.’” (39:3)
And He says:
“Say, ‘Call upon those you claim besides Him; they have no power to remove adversity from you or to shift it.’ Those whom they invoke themselves seek a way to their Lord as to which of them will be nearest; they hope for His mercy and fear His punishment. Indeed, the punishment of your Lord is ever to be feared.” (17:56–57)
Some of the early scholars said: “There were people who used to call upon the angels and the prophets, so Allah revealed, ‘Those whom you invoke seek means of nearness to Me just as you do; they hope for My mercy just as you hope for it, and they fear My punishment just as you fear it.’”
Allah, the Exalted, further states:
“It is not for a human being that Allah should give him the Book, judgment, and prophethood, and then he would say to the people, ‘Be servants to me instead of Allah.’ Rather, (he would say), ‘Be people of the Lord because of what you have been teaching of the Book and because of what you have been studying. And he would never command you to take the angels…’” (3:79)