Al Shu‘arā’

قَالُوا بَلْ وَجَدْنَا آبَاءنَا كَذَلِكَ يَفْعَلُونَ

قَالَ أَفَرَأَيْتُم مَّا كُنتُمْ تَعْبُدُونَ

أَنتُمْ وَآبَاؤُكُمُ الأَقْدَمُونَ

74. “They said: ‘Nay, but we found our fathers so doing’.”
75. “He said: ‘Have you then considered what you have been worshipping?”
76. “You and your fathers before you?’”

Imitation from scientists and scholars is sometimes a means for integration, development and progression, while following common people is the cause of stubborn conservatism; because stable belief in vain social traditions and national and tribal manners cause the society to be narcotized which is a barrier in the way of new thoughts and a hinder for recognizing the truth. So, in these holy verses, the Qur’an says that the zealous idolaters, in answer to this logical question that idols had no understanding, or any concept, reiterated their old and repeated response. They only answered that those issues were not so important, the important matter was that they had found their ancestors doing like that.

The verse says:

This answer, which referred to their blindly imitation from their ignorant ancestors, according to Abraham’s statement, was the only answer they could deliver. It was an answer that the reason of its nullification was inside of it, because no wise person permits himself to follow others blindly, particularly that the experiences of the new generations are more than those of the old generations, and there is no reason for blindly imitation from them.

The Qur’anic phrase: /kaǒalika yaf‘alun/ (so doing) is another emphasis on the concept of their imitation. It means that they said that whatever their ancestors had used to do they were doing, whether it was worshipping the idols or other things. Then, in the next noble verses, the Qur’an implies that Abraham concentrated his attack on the idols and told them whether they had seen the thing that they were constantly worshipping.