(172–174) “And when your Lord brought forth from the loins of the children of Adam their descendants and made them testify concerning themselves: ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes indeed, we testify.’ This was lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘We were unaware of this,’ or lest you should say, ‘It was only our forefathers who associated others with Allah before us, and we were merely their descendants after them. Will You then destroy us for what the followers of falsehood did?’ Thus do We explain the signs in detail, so that they may return.”
Allah Most High says: “And when your Lord brought forth from the loins of the children of Adam their descendants”; that is, He brought forth their descendants from their loins and caused them to reproduce and procreate, generation after generation.
When He brought them forth from their mothers’ wombs and their fathers’ loins, He “made them testify concerning themselves: ‘Am I not your Lord?’” That is, He caused them to acknowledge His lordship through the affirmation He implanted in their natural disposition: that He is their Lord, Creator, and Sovereign.
They said, “Yes indeed, we acknowledge this.” For Allah Most High created His servants with an innate disposition toward the upright religion of pure monotheism.
Every person is naturally disposed toward it, although this innate disposition may be altered and transformed by the corrupt beliefs that subsequently affect it. Hence: “They said, ‘Yes indeed, we testify.’ This was lest you should say on the Day of Resurrection, ‘We were unaware of this.’” That is, We put you to the test until you acknowledged what was firmly established within you—that Allah Most High is your Lord—lest you deny it on the Day of Resurrection, refuse to acknowledge any of it, and claim that Allah’s proof had never been established against you and that you had no knowledge of it, but were heedless and oblivious to it.
Thus, your excuse has now been nullified, and Allah’s conclusive proof against you has been established.
Or lest you plead another excuse and say: “It was only our forefathers who associated others with Allah before us, and we were merely their descendants after them.” We therefore followed in their footsteps and emulated them in their falsehood.
“Will You then destroy us for what the followers of falsehood did?” Yet Allah has implanted within your natural disposition that which shows you that what your forefathers followed was false and that the truth is what the messengers brought. This counters what you found your forefathers following and prevails over it.
It is true that a servant may encounter the teachings of his misguided forefathers and their corrupt doctrines and come to believe that they are the truth. This happens only because he turns away from Allah’s proofs, clear evidence, and signs in the horizons and within himself. By turning away from these and embracing what the followers of falsehood say, he may reach a state in which he prefers falsehood to the truth. This is the correct interpretation of these verses.
It has also been said that this refers to the day when Allah took the covenant from Adam’s descendants, when He brought them forth from his back and made them testify concerning themselves, whereupon they gave that testimony. Allah then used what they had acknowledged at that time as proof against them for their wrongdoing in disbelieving and obstinately rejecting the truth in this world and the Hereafter. However, nothing in the verse indicates this interpretation; nor is it relevant to the context, required by Allah Most High’s wisdom, or borne out by reality.
Indeed, no one remembers this pledge and covenant which, according to them, occurred when Allah brought Adam’s descendants forth from his back, when they existed in a realm like that of minute particles. It never even crosses a human being’s mind. How, then, could Allah use as proof against them something of which they have no knowledge and which has left neither substance nor trace? Because this matter is clear and evident, Allah Most High says:
“Thus do We explain the signs in detail”; that is, We elucidate and clarify them, “so that they may return” to what Allah has implanted in their natural disposition and to the covenant they made with Allah, and thereby refrain from reprehensible deeds.