"They said," the angels said, "Exalted are You," declaring God free from what the polytheists said.

"You are our Guardian, not them," meaning: We did not befriend them in their worship of us. "Rather, they used to worship the jinn," meaning the devils; they are the ones who invited them to worship us, so by obeying the devils, they were worshiping them. "But most of them," meaning the group of polytheists, "in them," meaning the devils, "were believers," affirming what they whispered to them regarding the worship of those they worshiped; thus, they worshiped them.