Surah 7. Al-A'raf, Ayah 194

Lit., "servants" ('ibad) - i.e., created beings subservient to God's will. This refers to saints living or dead, as well as to inanimate objects of every description, including idols, fetishes and representational images - physical or mental - of saints or deified persons.

False gods, whether idols or deified men, or ideas and superstitions, have no existence of their own, independent of Allah's creation. They are Allah's creatures, and like servents are subject to His authority. Deified men are not real men, but false ideas of men. They cannot help themselves: how can they help others?