The Quran

136

وَجَعَلوا لِلَّهِ مِمّا ذَرَأَ مِنَ الحَرثِ وَالأَنعامِ نَصيبًا فَقالوا هٰذا لِلَّهِ بِزَعمِهِم وَهٰذا لِشُرَكائِنا ۖ فَما كانَ لِشُرَكائِهِم فَلا يَصِلُ إِلَى اللَّهِ ۖ وَما كانَ لِلَّهِ فَهُوَ يَصِلُ إِلىٰ شُرَكائِهِم ۗ ساءَ ما يَحكُمونَ

Muhammad Asad

AND OUT OF whatever He has created of the fruits of the field and the cattle, they assign unto God a portion, saying, "This belongs to God"- or so they [falsely] claim¹ - "and this is for those beings who, we are convinced, have a share in God's divinity."² But that which is assigned to the beings associated in their minds with God does not bring [them] closer to God - whereas that which is assigned to God brings [them but] closer to those beings to whom they ascribe a share in His divinity."³ Bad, indeed, is their judgment!

Falsely - because everything that exists belongs, in the last resort, to God alone.
Lit., "for our [God-]partners" -i.e., "those whom we consider to be associated with God". For an explanation of the term sharik, see note 15 on verse 22 of this surah. The pre-Islamic Arabs used to dedicate a part of their agricultural produce and cattle to some of their deities, and a part to God, whom they regarded as one - albeit the greatest - of them. In consonance, however, with the method of the Qur'an, the above verse does not allude merely to this historical aspect of pre-Islamic Arabian life but has a wider, more general implication as well: that is, it refers not only to the apportioning of devotional "shares" between God and the imaginary deities, but also to the attribution of any share in His creative powers to anyone or anything beside Him.
I.e., the fact that they assign a "share" of their devotions to God does not strengthen their belief in Him but, rather, implies a negation of His transcendental uniqueness and, thus, makes them more and more dependent on imaginary divine or semi-divine "mediators".