The intercession of idols is treated of and described as a thing absurd:
What think ye of the gods whom ye invoke besides God. Show me what part of
the earth they have created? Had they a share in the creation of the heavens?
Have we given them a book in which they can find proofs? Nay, the wicked
promise one another only deceits. Sura Fatir (xxxv) 39.
In this way were the Meccans admonished of the folly of idolatry. The
circumstance which led to all these events was also used by the Prophet to
justify a much stricter line of conduct in the future.
Thus Muhammad quickly rose from his fall and re-established his position with
his followers ; but with the people at large it was very different. They could
not accept the theory of Satanic influence described in the Qur'an as the cause
of his fall, nor place any faith in a revelation so open to it. If the Our'an
were really God's message, surely this shifting about and this cancelling of
verses were not divine. So they laughed to scorn all his efforts to make them
give up their idol worship. To the charge of changing a verse, Muhammad replied
by another revelation on which the very convenient Muslim doctrine of abrogation
is founded: 1