Surah al-An`am (The Cattle) 6 : 22

Explanatory Note
 
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.’“ We almost behold the scene with our own eyes: the gathering of all creatures and the question to which no answer is given.