The Quran

Preface

قالوا سُبحانَكَ ما كانَ يَنبَغي لَنا أَن نَتَّخِذَ مِن دونِكَ مِن أَولِياءَ وَلٰكِن مَتَّعتَهُم وَآباءَهُم حَتّىٰ نَسُوا الذِّكرَ وَكانوا قَومًا بورًا

Yusuf Ali

They will say: “Glory to Thee! not meet was it for us that we should take for protectors others besides Thee:¹ But Thou didst bestow, on them and their fathers, good things (in life), until they forgot the Message: for they were a people (worthless and) lost.”

The creatures of God who were worshipped will prove that they never asked for worship: on the contrary they themselves worshipped God and sought the protection of God and of none but God, Cf. 46:5-6. They will go further and show that the false worshippers added ingratitude to their other sins: for God bestowed abundance on them, and they blasphemed against God. They were indeed “worthless and lost”, for the word bur bears both significations.