(… قُلِ اللَّهُ يُنَجِّيكُم) (Say, “It is Allah who saves you …): This is an affirmation that Allah (swt) is the only One who saves human beings from every difficulty, worry and hardship that they might face. However, after being saved, they return to polytheism.

(  ثُمَّ أَنتُمْ تُشْرِكُونَ… ) (…then you [still] associate others with Him.”): After a human being manages to pull through a crisis, hardship or trial, he will attribute it to the efforts he has put in and forget the One who lifted this difficulty off him. The word (Associate) used in this verse means that a person ascribes to Allah (swt) a partner whom he believes can harm, benefit, give and prevent. It was narrated by Shaddad Bin Aus (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said:

(I was with the Prophet (saws) one day when I saw an expression on his face which worried me, so I said: “May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, O Messenger of Allah! What is this I see on your face?” He answered:

“A matter I fear for my ummah who come after me.”

I asked, “What is it?” He said:

“Polytheism and hidden desires”.

I said: “O Messenger of Allah, will your ummah associate others in worship besides Allah after you?” He said:

“O Shaddad, they will not worship the sun or the moon or idols or stone, but they will show off the deeds to others.”[1]

This is due to their belief that human beings can give benefit, thus this is a type of associating others with Allah (swt).

In short, when the human being is saved from the difficulty he had fallen into, he will return to the state he had been in in the past. He will attribute everything to himself instead of being grateful to The Protector who had saved him from it.

[1] Al-Mustadrak ‘ala as-Sahihain by Al-Hakim: Volume 4, page 366, Hadith No. 7940.