“What will such people do on the Day when the Lord will say: ‘Now call upon all those whom you believed to be My partners.’ Thereupon they will call upon them, but they will not respond to their call; and We shall make them a common pit of doom. And the guilty shall behold the Fire and know that they are bound to fall into it, and will find no escape from it. (Al-Qur’ān – 18:52-53)
This is a recurring Qur’ānic theme that to follow someone’s command and guidance other than God’s amounts to associating others with God in His divinity. It is irrelevant whether one verbally brands such a being as a partner in God’s divinity or not. Even if a person curses someone while following his commands in disregard of God’s, he is guilty of associating him with God in His divinity. This point is best illustrated with reference to satans. As we know, everyone curses satans but at the same time follows them. The Qur’ān charges people with associating satans with God. The Qur’ān denounces it as a form of polytheism.
In the Day of Judgement polytheists will be asked to call upon those whom they believed to be the partners of God. But what they will see with their naked eyes that the friendship which they enjoyed among themselves during the worldly life will change into severe enmity in the Hereafter. And then both will be made ‘a common pit of doom’. The Fire of Hell will be their place, and they will find no escape from it.