Erasing the Accusation of Shirk

Ali: I presented you with a hadith, however you have just objected to it, so
now I will present verses of the Qur’an only. I will number each one as I go
along, this is the first verse:
017.057 Those unto whom they cry seek the way of approach to their Lord,
which of them shall be the nearest; they hope for His mercy and they fear
His doom. Lo! the doom of thy Lord is to be shunned.
In this verse, that which was worshipped has been described as wanting
mercy from Allah and fearing Allah. These are not the characteristics of an
idol, only of humans. Therefore, what was being worshipped were deceased
pious people.
Qadhi: What you have recited is correct, but this verse is not talking of the
idols, and nor is it referring to the deceased pious either. The verse is talking
in the present tense ‘they hope for His mercy and they fear Allah’. If the
verse was discussing the deceased pious, would it not be written in past
tense such as, ‘they hoped for His mercy and they feared Allah’? This verse
applies to those who are living and not those who have passed away,
because they are already receiving blessing or punishment. Furthermore,
when the words ‘fear Allah’ are used, it means one fears Allah and due to
this fear one will carry out good deeds. Moreover, it means to fear the
punishment. How will the deceased pious or any deceased human be able to
fear Allah in their graves, as they cannot carry out any good deeds in the
graves and neither can they fear the punishment, since they will either be
saved from it or bearing it.
I mentioned earlier that the people of Makkah worshipped two living things,
angels and the Jinn and the verse you recited is in fact referring to either the
angels or Jinn. However the verse cannot be talking of angels as the verse
states, ‘they fear His doom. Lo! the doom of thy Lord is to be shunned.’ This
statement is not appropriate for the angels as they will not suffer from the
punishment, therefore this verse cannot be talking of them. Therefore, this
verse refers to the Jinn, more precisely, those Jinn whom the polytheists
would invoke for some help. Even those Jinn that embraced Islam would
still be worshipped and this is when Allah Most Glorious revealed this verse,
explaining that the Jinn are those who fear Him and hope for His mercy and
they (the Polytheists) wrongfully invoke them as Allah Most High says in
the Qur’an:
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