al-Ṣaffāt

وَإِن كَانُوا لَيَقُولُونَ

لَوْ أَنَّ عِندَنَا ذِكْراً مِنَ الأَوَّلِينَ

لَكُنَّا عِبَادَ اللَّهِ الْمُـخْلَصِينَ

167. “And verily they used to say:”

168. “If we had had but a reminder from the men of old.”

169. “We would certainly have been Allah’s sincere servants.”

The history of the past should not be taken as a pretext against logic and reasoning. So in the above three verses the Qur’an announces that the polytheists used to say if they had had one of the old heavenly Books with them, they would have been among the sincere servants of Allah. This statement is just like the words of the lazy students who have failed in their examinations and in order to cover their own laziness they say if they had had some good and clever teachers they would have certainly been some first grade students, too.

Here are the concerning verses: