قُلْ أَنَدْعُوا۟ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا يَنفَعُنَا وَلَا يَضُرُّنَا وَنُرَدُّ عَلَىٰٓ أَعْقَابِنَا بَعْدَ إِذْ هَدَىٰنَا ٱللَّهُ كَٱلَّذِى ٱسْتَهْوَتْهُ ٱلشَّيَـٰطِينُ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ حَيْرَانَ لَهُۥٓ أَصْحَـٰبٌ يَدْعُونَهُۥٓ إِلَى ٱلْهُدَى ٱئْتِنَا ۗ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى ٱللَّهِ هُوَ ٱلْهُدَىٰ ۖ وَأُمِرْنَا لِنُسْلِمَ لِرَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
Qul anad'oo min doonil laahi maa laa yanfa'unaa wa laa yadurrunaa wa nuraddu 'alaaa a'qaabina ba'da iz hadaanal laahu kallazis tahwat hush Shayaateenu fil ardi hairaana lahooo ashaabuny yad'oo nahooo ilal huda' tinaa; qul inna hudal laahi huwal hudaa wa umirnaa linuslima li Rabbil 'aalameen
Katakanlah, "Apakah kita akan menyeru selain dari Allah, sesuatu yang tidak dapat mendatangkan kemanfaatan kepada kita dan tidak (pula) mendatangkan kemudaratan kepada kita dan (apakah) kita akan kembali ke belakang, sesudah Allah memberi petunjuk kepada kita, seperti orang yang telah disesatkan oleh setan di pesawangan yang menakutkan; dalam keadaan bingung, dia mempunyai kawan-kawan yang memanggilnya kepada jalan yang lurus (dengan mengatakan), "Marilah ikuti kami". Katakanlah, "Sesungguhnya petunjuk Allah itulah (yang sebenarnya) petunjuk; dan kita disuruh agar menyerahkan diri kepada Tuhan semesta alam,
Say: shall we call, instead of God, on what neither benefits us nor harms us, and turn back on our heels after God has guided us — like one whom the devils have lured away in the land, bewildered, while his companions call him to guidance, 'Come to us'? Say: God's guidance is the only guidance, and we have been commanded to surrender to the Lord of all the worlds,
The simile at the centre carries the argument: a man out in open country, bewildered, with companions on the road calling him over, and the verb describing what took him means being made to fall, close kin to the noun Arabic uses for craving. Turning back on the heels is a battle idiom for retreat, so leaving guidance is pictured as a rout rather than a considered change of mind. Both images leave the man somewhere he can still be called back from.