Then He said:

“Or lest you say, ‘Our forefathers associated others with Allah before us, and we were descendants who came after them. Will You then destroy us for what those who followed falsehood did?’”

He mentioned two arguments they might advance, both of which this testimony refutes. The first is:

“Lest you say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘We were unaware of this.’”

He thus explained that this is innate, necessary knowledge that every human being must possess. This establishes Allah’s proof refuting denial of the Creator: affirming the Maker is innate, necessary knowledge, and constitutes proof against such denial.

The second is:

“Or lest you say, ‘Our forefathers associated others with Allah before us, and we were descendants who came after them.’”

This is a proof refuting polytheism, just as the first is a proof refuting denial of the Creator. Denial of the Creator is exemplified by the disbelief of Pharaoh and those like him, while polytheism is exemplified by the association of others with Allah among all nations.

As for His words:

“Or lest you say, ‘Our forefathers associated others with Allah before us, and we were descendants who came after them. Will You then destroy us for what those who followed falsehood did?’”

They mean: those who followed falsehood were our polytheist forefathers—will You punish us for the sins of others?

This supposes that they did not know that Allah was their Lord, that they found their forefathers associating others with Him, and that they were descendants who came after them. The ordinary course of human nature is for a man to follow his father’s example, even in trades, dwellings, clothing, and food, since it was his father who raised him. That is why his parents make him a Jew, a Christian, a Magian, or a polytheist. If this were the natural pattern, and there were nothing in their innate disposition or reason that contradicted it, they would say:

“We are excused; our forefathers were the ones who