ٱلرَّعْد : ١٤

  • لَهُۥ To Him
  • دَعۡوَةُ (is) supplication
  • ٱلۡحَقِّۚ (of) the truth
  • وَٱلَّذِينَ And those whom
  • يَدۡعُونَ they invoke
  • مِن besides Him
  • دُونِهِۦ besides Him
  • لَا not
  • يَسۡتَجِيبُونَ they respond
  • لَهُم to them
  • بِشَيۡءٍ with a thing
  • إِلَّا except
  • كَبَٰسِطِ like one who stretches
  • كَفَّيۡهِ his hands
  • إِلَى towards
  • ٱلۡمَآءِ water
  • لِيَبۡلُغَ to reach
  • فَاهُ his mouth
  • وَمَا but not
  • هُوَ it
  • بِبَٰلِغِهِۦۚ reaches it
  • وَمَا And not
  • دُعَآءُ (is) the supplication
  • ٱلۡكَٰفِرِينَ (of) the disbelievers
  • إِلَّا but
  • فِي in
  • ضَلَٰلٖ error
To Him [alone] is the supplication of truth. And those they call upon besides Him do not respond to them with a thing, except as one who stretches his hands toward water [from afar, calling it] to reach his mouth, but it will not reach it [thus].1 And the supplication of the disbelievers is not but in error [i.e., futility].
Footnotes
1 - The analogy indicates that false deities will never respond to them at all.
His, exalted be He, is the call of truth, that is, the words that constitute it [the truth], and these are: 'there is no god but God' (laa ilaaha illaa'Llaah); and those upon whom they call (read yad'oon or tad'oon, 'you call'), [those whom] they worship, apart from Him, that is, other than Him - namely, the idols - do not answer them anything, of which they ask; save as, is the response to, one who stretches forth his hands towards water, at the edge of a well, calling to it, that it may reach his mouth, by its rising through the well to [reach] him, but it would never reach it, that is, [reach] his mouth, ever: likewise they [the idols] will not answer them; and the call of the disbelievers, their worship of idols - or their actual supplication - goes only astray, [it is only] in perdition.