"Or have they partners who have ordained for them a religion to which Allah has not given permission?" (Ash-Shura: 21). This is in the form of an interrogation, meaning: Do they indeed have partners? They are the devils, whom they made partners and worshipped, for they invited them to the worship of idols. "And had it not been for the decisive word," there would not be a postponement of the punishment of the Hereafter to the life of this world, "the matter would have been judged between them," by admitting the believers into Paradise.