This short passage of three verses is characterized by a powerful rhythm. It begins with a statement of the essential characteristics of Godhead and a denouncement of those who turn away from guidance to sink back into disbelief and their associating partners with God. It portrays a person who is totally lost, bewildered, not knowing where to turn, and this emphasizes the meaning of turning away from faith after having believed in God. The passage then emphasizes that God’s guidance is the only true guidance. It ends on a high note as it speaks of God’s total sovereignty and His complete authority over all creation. On the Day of Resurrection, even the most hardened atheists cannot entertain any doubt about His complete sovereignty, and then to Him all creation returns.

Say: Shall we invoke, instead of God, something that can neither benefit nor harm us, and shall we turn back on our heels after God has given us guidance, like one whom the satans have lured away in the land, blunders along perplexed. Yet he has companions who call out to him, “Come to us for guidance.” Say: In truth, God’s guidance is the only guidance. We are commanded to surrender ourselves to the Lord of all the worlds.” (Verse 71)

The passage starts with the instruction, `Say’. This is used often in this sūrah to formulate a recognition that all authority belongs to God and that the Prophet Muĥammad (peace be upon him) is the one chosen to convey a message and warn people against its rejection. As it imparts a feeling of the seriousness of the message, we are also made to understand that the Prophet does no more than what he is bidden. He implements his instructions with complete dedication.

“Say: Shall we invoke, instead of God, something that can neither benefit nor harm us?” (Verse 71) This is an order to the Prophet to tell the unbelievers that what they do is to invoke and appeal to beings other than God, allowing those beings to lead them where they please, when they cannot actually benefit or harm them in any way. This is true, whether those beings whom they invoke are idols of stone, trees, spirits, angels, devils or other human beings. They only have one quality in common, namely, that they can bring no benefit and cause no harm. Every movement in the universe occurs by God’s will. Hence, what God does not sanction cannot take place.

Nothing happens except what He approves of. Thus, the Prophet is instructed to denounce every type of worship, submission or appeal to anyone other than God and to make it clear that every action of this sort is absolutely absurd.

This instruction to the Prophet might have been given by way of reply to the suggestions made by the unbelievers to the Prophet for working out a compromise whereby he would join them in invoking their deities in return for their joining him in worshipping his Lord. On the other hand, it might have been an outright denunciation of the practices of the idolaters and a declaration by the Prophet and the believers that their way could have no meeting point with that followed by the unbelievers. Either way, the final result is the same. We have a strong denunciation of this absurdity which no human intellect can accept once it is freed of inherited traditions and prevailing values and is allowed to judge objectively for itself.

To emphasise the association of partners with God and to strengthen its denunciation, the sūrah portrays these beliefs in contrast to the concept of God’s oneness and submission to Him alone. It is to this concept that He has guided the believers: “Say: ‘Shall we invoke, instead of God, something that can neither benefit nor harm us, and shall we turn back on our heels after God has given us guidance?’” (Verse 71)

To revert to idolatry is, then, a turning back on one’s heels in a retrogressive movement after one has achieved considerable progress.

This is followed by a vividly realistic and inspiring scene: “Like one whom the satans have lured away in the land, blunders along perplexed. Yet he has companions who call out to him, ‘Come to us for guidance.’” (Verse 71) The scene is full of life. It describes the loss and bewilderment that inevitably overwhelms any person who reverts to idolatry after having believed in God’s oneness. He finds himself torn between believing in the Supreme Lord who has no partners, and numerous deities who are powerless. He is confused, unable to determine where to turn for guidance. He is lost, bewildered.

How miserable is his lot for being lured away, perplexed and for committing blunders. The word `lure’ is highly descriptive. The person we see in this scene does not follow the direction into which he is lured in order to establish a well-defined objective, even though it leads to error. He has, on the other side, friends and companions who have followed proper guidance, and who beckon him to come over to them. Between the lure of the devils and the beckoning of his guided companions this person continues to blunder along, unable to determine where to go and which side to join. His psychological suffering looms large, so much so that we actually feel it as it is described.

Every time I read these verses I can see this scene in front of me and feel all the confusion, hesitation and bewilderment with which it overflows. But that was merely a mental exercise. More recently, I have known real-life cases that answer this description very accurately. All the confusion was there to see and all the suffering to feel. These were examples of people who had known the faith and experienced what it meant to believe, but who then turned back on their heels in order to worship false deities, under the pressure of fear or temptation. No matter how strong or otherwise their faith was, their turning back subjected them to this utter misery. As I saw these people, the full import of these verses became much clearer to me.

The scene is followed by a clear statement outlining the right way which all people should follow: “Say: ‘In truth, God’s guidance is the only guidance. We are commanded to surrender ourselves to the Lord of all the worlds, and to attend regularly to prayers and to fear Him.’” (Verses 71-2) This decisive statement fits perfectly with the psychological situation described here. When someone fully appreciates the type of bewilderment the Qur’ānic verse describes and the suffering of anyone who so experiences such bewilderment, he is ready to receive with reassurance such a decisive statement and accept it without hesitation. “Say: ‘In truth, God’s guidance is the only guidance.’” (Verse 71) This is an absolute certainty. Whenever people abandon this guidance and replace it with man-made concepts, regimes, laws and values they find themselves lost in absolute bewilderment.

God has given man the ability to recognize and appreciate some of the laws of nature, its forces and potentials so that he may be able to use these in discharging the task assigned to him of building the earth and promoting human life and civilization.

But man has not been granted by God the ability to get to the core of the absolute truths of the universe or to fathom the world which lies beyond the reach of his perceptions. This world includes the workings of his own mind and soul, and even the workings of his own organs and the causes which enable his body to function properly, according to a definite system and a particular fashion.

Hence, man is in need of divine guidance concerning everything that relates to his own nature, including faith, morals, values and standards, systems and laws. Only with such guidance can man regulate his life as it should be regulated. Whenever man adopts God’s guidance, he finds himself following the right track, because “God’s guidance is the only guidance”. Whenever man abandons God’s guidance completely or deviates from it partially in order to replace it with something else, he loses his way. This is due to the fact that whatever is in conflict with God’s guidance represents error and loss. There is simply no third cause: “What is in conflict with the truth other than error.” (10: 32)

Humanity continues to endure the terrible effects of going astray, for these are inevitable when mankind moves away from God’s guidance. Indeed, this is the one historical inevitability which is certain to take place because, unlike those inevitabilities claimed by the advocates of different philosophies, this one is determined by God. Anyone who wishes to look closely at the misery to which people expose themselves when they deviate from God’s guidance does not need to look far. That misery is everywhere for us to see. Those who are endowed with insight and intelligence continue to raise their voices to warn against it.

The Qur’ānic verse states clearly that human beings must submit themselves to God alone, offer worship to Him and continue to fear Him alone: “We are commanded to surrender ourselves to the Lord of all the worlds, and to attend regularly to our prayers and to fear Him.” (Verses 71-2)

The instructions given to the Prophet Muĥammad (peace be upon him) are such that he has to declare in absolute clarity that God’s guidance is the only guidance. As such, we are commanded to submit to the Lord of all the universe, because to Him alone all the worlds submit. Why should man be the only exception out of all creation when everything in the universe submits to God’s absolute Lordship? The reference made here to the fact that God is `the Lord of all the worlds’ comes at the right time. It emphasizes an undeniable fact that all the worlds, whether known or unknown to us, submit to the laws God has set in operation and cannot break away from them. Biologically, man is also subject to the laws of nature. What he needs to do, then, is to submit also in the area in which he has been given a choice: to follow guidance or to sink in error. When man chooses to submit to God in the same way as he does biologically, all his affairs will be set aright, because harmony will be established between his constitution and his action, between his body and his soul, between his present life and his life to come. The declaration made by God’s Messenger and his followers that they have complied with the commandment to surrender themselves to God is enough to inspire anyone to open his mind and make himself ready to respond to the divine instruction.