Their contact prayer at the sanctuary was nothing but deception/noise and aversion. Taste the retribution for what you have rejected.
Translation endnotes
[8:35] The Quran informs us that the practices of Islam were initially revealed to Abraham. Abraham and his followers were observing the sala prayer (21:73). Meccan polytheists never accepted that they were polytheists (6:23,148; 16:35). Since they believed in the intercession of some holy people, and since they falsely attributed numerous prohibitions and rules to God, the Quran considered them polytheists. Those so-called Muslims who reverted to the belief and practices of the era of ignorance after the revelation of the Quran, tried to create some artificial differences between them and Meccan polytheists. They distorted the meaning of the verse into "their prayer is only clapping hands and whistles" so that Meccan polytheists will be seen to be bizarre and different. The word muka means whistle, noise, or hypocrisy. The celebrated Arabic dictionary Lisan al-Arab, under the definition of this word, lists underground escape holes dug by moles. This resembles the word nafaqa (hypocrisy), which relates a semantic relation between physical holes and abstract hypocrisy. As for the word tasdiya, either means aversion or it is a form of tasdidah, which simply means repelling. In fact, the following verse uses its verb form, supporting our understanding. See 53:19-23. Also, see chapter 107 and verse 9:54.