﴿ قُلْ إِنِّى نُهِيتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ ٱلَّذِينَ تَدْعُونَ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ قُل لَّآ أَتَّبِعُ أَهْوَآءَكُمْ ۙ قَدْ ضَلَلْتُ إِذًۭا وَمَآ أَنَا۠ مِنَ ٱلْمُهْتَدِينَ ﴾

“SAY [to the deniers of the truth]: "Behold, I have been forbidden to worship those [beings] whom you invoke instead of God." Say: "I do not follow your errant views -or else I should have gone astray, and should not be among those who have found the right path."”

Say: 'Truly I have been forbidden to worship, those besides God whom you worship by your caprice in the way of wealth or soul or lust or corporeal pleasure or otherwise, but no: 'I shall not follow your whims, by worshipping these and then end up astray by being veiled thereby and fail to be guided to the affirmation of Oneness. The significance of the [use of the] past tense [here of the verb qad ḍalaltu] is that my error would have been realised in such a situation and I would be nowhere near guidance.