They used to dedicate some things from their crops and offspring to Allah, and some things to their idols. When they saw what they had dedicated to Allah flourishing and increasing in goodness, they would return and dedicate it to the idols. If what they had dedicated to the idols flourished, they would leave it for them, justifying that Allah is Self-Sufficient. This was due to their love for their idols and their preference for them. And His saying, 'from what He has created in it,' means that Allah was more deserving of what is flourishing, because He is the One who created it and made it flourish. They do not return to what they cannot create or make flourish, according to their claim. They assert that it is for Allah, while Allah did not command them with that nor legislate for them that division, which is from polytheism. They associated Allah with their idols in terms of devotion, so it does not reach Allah, meaning it does not reach the faces they used to direct it to, such as the hospitality of guests and charity to the poor. Rather, it reaches their partners, from spending on them by slaughtering their livestock near them and providing for their caretakers, and so on. How evil is what they judge in preferring their idols over Allah, the Exalted, and their actions which He did not legislate for them.