Overview (Verses 21 - 24)

A Contention Contrary to Reality
 
Who is more wicked than one who invents a falsehood about God or denies His revelations? The wrongdoers shall never achieve success. One day We shall gather them all together, then We shall say to those who associate partners with God: “Where, now, are those partners which you have been claiming?” They will have no contention then other than to say, `By God, our Lord, we have never associated partners with Him. “Behold how they have lied to themselves and how they have been forsaken by whatever they have fabricated. (Verses 21-24)
 
These verses place in front of the idolaters’ eyes the truth of their attitudes and practices, as they are viewed by God Almighty. It begins with a rhetorical question to establish the fact of their wrongdoing as they fabricate lies against God. They profess to follow His faith, as preached by the Prophet Abraham. They further allege that what they make lawful or forbidden of meat, food and worship rituals, which will be detailed in Verses 136-140, have been ordered by God, when they have not. Similarly, some of those who describe themselves as Muslims today falsely claim to follow the Divine faith preached by the Prophet Muĥammad (peace be upon him). The fact is that they enact rules and laws, bring about situations and establish values by which they claim for themselves God’s authority. They allege that all these inventions are nothing other than the divine faith. Some people who have bartered away their faith for a dwelling in hell also endorse their false claims. They also reject the divine revelations which the Prophet brought them, deny their truth, claiming that they have not been bestowed from on high. Conversely, they claim that their own practices, immersed in jāhiliyyah, have been sanctioned by God. All this still happens today in many societies.
 
God denounces all this and describes it as the worst injustice: “Who is more wicked than one who invents a falsehood about God or denies His revelations? The wrongdoers shall never achieve success.” (Verse 21) Reference is made here to idolatry as injustice in order to enhance its most horrible image. Indeed, it is the most frequent description of idolatry in the Qur’ān. Moreover, it is accurate since idolatry is an act of injustice perpetrated against the truth, against oneself and against mankind in general. It is an offence against God’s own right to be worshipped alone, without partners, and against oneself as it leads the perpetrator to ruin. It is also an offence against mankind who are thus led away from the path of submission to God alone in order to establish regimes and conditions that ruin human life altogether. As such, idolatry is a great injustice, as it is described by the Lord of all the worlds. Neither idolatry nor the idolaters will, however, achieve any success: “The wrongdoers shall never achieve success.” (Verse 21) Here God states the full facts and the end result of idolatry and the idolaters, or injustice and the wrongdoers. What short-sighted people may see of the affluence that some enjoy in the short run cannot be described as success or prosperity because it is no more than a short-lived situation which leads to eventual ruin. Who can be more truthful than God?
 
As an example of their loss, their situation on the Day of Resurrection is described very vividly: “One day We shall gather them all together, then We shall say to those who associate partners with God: ‘Where, now, are those partners which you have been claiming.? They will have no contention then other than to say, ‘By God, our Lord, we have never associated partners with Him.’ Behold how they have lied to themselves and how they have been forsaken by whatever they have fabricated.” (Verses 22-24)
 
There are numerous forms and types of idolatry and idolaters and the partners they associate with God. A naïve image of people worshipping statues, stones, trees, etc. is by no means the only form j of idolatry. In essence, associating partners with God is to acknowledge any one of the qualities attributable to God alone as belonging to others as well, whether such quality relates to His conduct or control of events, destinies, or to the offering of worship rituals, or to the enactment and implementation of man-made laws. All these are forms of idolatry practised by different groups of unbelievers who associate different forms of partners with God.
 
The Qur’ān describes all these forms as polytheism or idolatry. It portrays scenes from the Day of Judgement which depict many of these and show that the destiny and punishment of different types of idolatry are the same in this life and in the life to come.
 
The pagan Arabs used to practise all types of idolatry. They believed that some types of God’s creation have a say in the conduct of events and the determination of destinies, through intercession which is binding on God. These were the angels. Others, like the jinn, they claimed, had the ability to harm them, whether they acted on their own initiative or were manipulated by sorcerers and fortune-tellers. They also assigned abilities to the spirits of their forefathers. Idols were symbols of all these creatures. They attributed to fortune-tellers the ability to talk to these idols which would then issue their decrees of prohibition or permissibility. The truth, then, was that the fortune-tellers themselves were the partners they associated with God.
 
Idolatry was practised in the form of addressing worshipful rituals to those idols and presenting offerings to them, which actually went to the monks and fortune- tellers themselves. Some borrowed from the Persians the belief that planets have a say in the running of events and, therefore, they addressed their rituals to them. They also practised a third type of idolatry by enacting for themselves, through their monks and notables, laws of which God does not approve. They used to claim that these represented God’s law in the same way as some people do today.
 
In this scene of gathering and confrontation, all types of idolaters are questioned about the partners they associate with God. These other deities are nowhere to be seen, nor can they avail their worshippers of anything: “One day We shall gather them all together, then We shall say to those who associate partners with God: ‘Where, now, are those partners which you have been claiming.’“ (Verse 22) We almost behold the scene with our own eyes: the gathering of all creatures and the question to which no answer is given.
 
The awesome scene has its effect: human nature is rid of all that has blinded it and it realises that no partners with God have ever existed. They have to face up to their test and to make the truth appear before all. In that awesome situation, they will have no contention other than to say: “By God, our Lord, we have never associated partners with Him.” (Verse 23) As they realise the truth, they abandon their past in total and acknowledge the Lordship of God alone. They disown their idolatry when it is too late. Their acknowledgement of the truth cannot save them because it is time for reward or punishment, not for action. They cannot go back to life, rather they are faced with what they used to do during their life on earth. The Prophet is invited to wonder at their situation as God states that they have lied to themselves when they associated partners with God, for He has no partners. On the Day of Judgement, their falsehood fails them and they have no option but to acknowledge the truth: “Behold how they have lied to themselves and how they have been forsaken by whatever they have fabricated.” (Verse 24)

This is the interpretation I find most logical concerning their oaths on the Day of Judgement, made in the presence of God, that they did not associate partners with Him. On that Day they dare not utter any falsehood against God and cannot make a false oath deliberately. On that Day, they hide nothing from God. It is simply that their nature sees the truth for what it is and falsehood leaves no trace whatsoever in their senses. Hence, the invitation by God to wonder at their lies to themselves which, on the Day of Judgement, leave no mark on their minds or senses. God knows best the meaning of His words. Here, we only present a possible interpretation.