Surah 11. Hud, Ayah 63

I.e., "if I were to suppress - in spite of all the evidence obtained through divine revelation - the fundamental truth that there is no deity save God, and that the ascribing of divinity or divine powers to anyone or anything beside Him is an unforgivable sin" (cf. 4:48 and the corresponding note [65]).

Lit., "you do not add [anything] to me but perdition". Although this dialogue is related in the context of the story of Salih and the leaders of the Thamud, its implications have - as is always the case with Qur'anic stories and parables - a universal, timeless import. The stress here is on the intrinsic impossibility of reconciling belief in the One God, whose omniscience and omnipotence embraces all that exists, with an attribution of divine or semi-divine qualities and functions to anyone or anything else. The subtly-veiled suggestion of the Thamud (see note [92]) and its rejection by Salih has a bearing on all religious attitudes based on a desire to "bring God closer to man" through the interposition of alleged "mediators" between Him and man. In primitive religions, this interposition led to the deification of various forces of nature and, subsequently, to the invention of imaginary deities which were thought to act against the background of an undefined, dimly-perceived Supreme Power (for instance, the Moira of the ancient Greeks). In higher religious concepts, this need for mediation assumes the form of personified manifestations of God through subordinate deities (as is the case, in Hinduism, with the personifications of the Absolute Brahma of the Upanishads and the Vedanta in the forms of Vishnu or Shiva), or in His supposed incarnation in human form (as represented in the Christian idea of Jesus as "God's son" and the Second Person of the Trinity). And, lastly, God is supposedly "brought closer to man" by the interposition of a hierarchy of saints, living or dead, whose intercession is sought even by people who consider themselves to be "monotheists" - and this includes many misguided Muslims who do not realize that their belief in saints as "mediators" between men and God conflicts with the very essence of Islam. The ever-recurring Qur'anic stress on the oneness and uniqueness of God, and the categorical denial of the idea that anyone or anything - whether it be a concrete being or an abstract force - could have the least share in God's qualities or the least influence on the manner in which He governs the universe aims at freeing man from the self-imposed servitude to an imaginary hierarchy of "mediating powers", and at making him realize that "wherever you turn there is God's countenance" (2:115), and that God is "[always] near, responding [to the call of whoever calls unto Him]" ( 2:186 ; also, in a condensed form, in verse {61} of this surah).

"Allah has been good to me and bestowed on me His light and the inestimable privilege of carrying His mission to you. Don't you see that if I fail to carry out his mission, I shall have to answer before Him? Who can help me in that case? The only thing which you can add to may misfortunes would be total perdition in the Hereafter." Cf. xi. 28.