Guidance: the finding of paths to righteousness. Allah, the Exalted, said: "So if you perceive from them righteousness, then give them their wealth." And it is also recited: "their guidance." Guidance and righteousness are like non-existence and non-existence. The meaning of its addition to him is that he is righteous like him.

And that he is righteous has a matter from before, meaning from before Moses and Aaron, blessings be upon them. The meaning of his knowledge of it is that he knew from him wondrous conditions, strange secrets, and attributes that he approved of and praised, until he was qualified for his companionship and closeness. This is like saying about the best of people: I know so-and-so. Your words here contain the inclusion of praiseworthy attributes, in the sense that it may relate to what We have given, or to his guidance, or to something omitted, meaning: mention from the times of his guidance this time.

His saying: "What are these statues?" is a pretense of ignorance towards them, to belittle their idols and diminish their status, while he knows of their veneration and respect for them. He did not intend for the worshippers a direct object, and he treated it like something that does not take a direct object, like saying: the doers of worship for them, or the standers for them. If you say: Why was it not said: "worshipping them," like Allah, the Exalted, said: "They are worshipping their idols?" I say: If he intended a direct object, he would have made it transitive with its connection, which is "upon."

How ugly is imitation and the accepted saying without proof, and how great is the plot of Satan against the imitators when he lured them to imitate their forefathers in the worship of statues and they prostrated their foreheads to them, while they believe they are upon something, and they are earnest in supporting their doctrine, and arguing with the people of truth about their falsehood. And it is enough for the people of imitation as a disgrace that the idol worshippers among them are: "You are" from the emphasis that does not allow for speech while neglecting it, because the conjunction on a pronoun is in the status of part of the verb is impossible. And similar to it: "Dwell, you and your wife, in Paradise," he intended that the imitators and the imitated are all involved in a path of misguidance that is not hidden from one who has the slightest understanding, due to both groups relying on no evidence, but rather on a following desire and an obeyed devil, for they are far from considering that what they are upon is misguidance.