أَمِ ٱتَّخَذُوا۟ مِن دُونِ ٱللَّهِ شُفَعَآءَ قُلْ أَوَلَوْ كَانُوا۟ لَا يَمْلِكُونَ شَيْـًٔا وَلَا يَعْقِلُونَ · قُل لِّلَّهِ ٱلشَّفَٰعَةُ جَمِيعًا
"'Have they taken intercessors besides God?' Say: 'Even though they have power over nothing and do not reason?' Say: 'Intercession belongs wholly to God.'"
The answer to the reasoning of the third verse of the sūra — that the intermediaries are counted as bringing near — is completed here.
And the form of the answer is worth recording: intercession is not denied — its owner is named. Li'llāhi'sh-shafāʿatu jamīʿā. The same line was treated in al-Baqara at 2/255 (man dha'lladhī yashfaʿu ʿindahū illā bi-idhnih): the door is not closed, it is made subject to permission. I rely on that treatment.