Then the Qur’an adds that not only they are not able to create a fly...

Then the Qur’an adds that not only they are not able to create a fly, but also they are unable to stand against a fly, because as the verse says: “…and should the fly snatch away anything from them, they could not take it back from it.…” A weak and feeble being that fails even in standing against a fly, how is it worthy that they consider it as a manager of their fate and remover of their difficulties?

Yes, both ‘the seekers’, and the worshippers, and those objects of worship, ‘the sought’ are feeble! The verse says: “…Feeble are (both) the seeker and the sought!” Some Islamic narrations indicate that the idolaters of Quraysh used to plaster the idols that they had gathered and arranged around the Ka‘bah, with musk, ambergris and saffron mixed with honey, and around them they used to loudly say some words similar to the term ‘labbayk’ (here am I) of the monotheists which indicated their polytheism and idolatry as well as the distortion of the saying of monotheists, and they used to imagine these worthless and low objects as the partners of Allah.

But flies came sitting on them, ate the honey, saffron, musk and ambergris thereover while the idolaters had not the power to take them back from the flies. Taking this scenery as an example, the Qur’an reiterates the feebleness and inability of the idols and the weakness of the logic of the polytheists and implies that the idolaters can see carefully how their objects of worship are under the feet of flies and they are not able to show the least defence from themselves.

These are some worthless and incapable objects of worship that the polytheists demanded them to solve their various problems! By the way, the objective of the Arabic words /talib/ (the seeker) and /matlub/ (the sought) is just the same thing which was said in the above: the former is the worshippers of the idols and the latter is the idols themselves both of which are weak and incapable.

Some commentators have also said that probably here the term /talib/ refers to ‘fly’ and /matlub/ refers to ‘idols’, (since the flies seek the idols in order to enjoy of the food stuff over them). After stating the above lively parable, in the next verse the Qur’an concludes that they have not recognized Allah so that they must know Him.