وَلَقَدْ ءَاتَيْنَآ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ رُشْدَهُۥ مِن قَبْلُ وَكُنَّا بِهِۦ عَٰلِمِينَ · إِذْ قَالَ لِأَبِيهِ وَقَوْمِهِۦ مَا هَٰذِهِ ٱلتَّمَاثِيلُ ٱلَّتِىٓ أَنتُمْ لَهَا عَٰكِفُونَ · قَالُوا۟ وَجَدْنَآ ءَابَآءَنَا لَهَا عَٰبِدِينَ · قَالَ لَقَدْ كُنتُمْ أَنتُمْ وَءَابَآؤُكُمْ فِى ضَلَٰلٍ مُّبِينٍ
Wa laqad ātaynā Ibrāhīma rushdahu min qablu wa kunnā bihi ʿālimīn · Idh qāla li-abīhi wa qawmihi mā hādhihi't-tamāthīlu'llatī antum lahā ʿākifūn · Qālū wajadnā ābāʾanā lahā ʿābidīn · Qāla laqad kuntum antum wa ābāʾukum fī ḍalālin mubīn
"Indeed We gave Abraham his right judgement before, and We knew him well. · When he said to his father and his people: 'What are these images to which you keep yourselves attached?' · They said: 'We found our fathers worshipping them.' · He said: 'Indeed you and your fathers alike have been in plain error.'"
And a point of word order must be recorded: the word is annexed to a pronoun — rushdahu, "his right judgement". Not rushdan (indefinite).
The grammarians' explanation: the annexation here gives the sense that which befits him, that which is proper to him. That is, what is given is not a general capacity but his own share.
| View | Before what |
|---|---|
| 1 | Before Moses and Aaron — they were named in the preceding verse |
| 2 | Before his prophethood — in his youth |
| 3 | Before the events told in this sūra |
And now I come to the most striking fact of this section. It is wholly a datum of the text and is countable.
The same objects are called by five different names across the scene — and the naming changes with the speaker:
| Verse | Word | Who says it |
|---|---|---|
| 52 | al-tamāthīl — images | Abraham |
| 57 | aṣnāmakum — your idols | Abraham |
| 58 | judhādhan — pieces | The text |
| 59 | bi-ālihatinā — our gods | The people |
| 62 | bi-ālihatinā — our gods | The people |
| 66 | mā lā yanfaʿukum — what does not benefit you | Abraham |
And what is seen in the table is this — I record it as my own reading, its ground being the count above:
That is, the dispute in the scene begins, in its very first sentence, over the naming. Abraham's question is not a question for information: mā hādhihi't-tamāthīl — "what are these?" In asking the question he has already given the answer in the name.
Tamāthīl — root م-ث-ل, the plural of timthāl: the likeness of a thing, its image, its representation. The word names the object as the copy of something — not as a thing in itself.
عَٰكِفُونَ — root ع-ك-ف: to stand over a thing without leaving it, to stay there. Iʿtikāf is from the same root. And the picture of the verb is worth recording: the verse tells not of worship but of not leaving its side. That is, what is criticised is first described as a habit.
وَجَدْنَآ ءَابَآءَنَا لَهَا عَٰبِدِينَ — and the answer is not a proof but a finding: wajadnā (we found).
I record this as an observation about the structure: the people do not defend the worship — they say they inherited it. And Abraham's answer aims at precisely this point: laqad kuntum antum wa ābāʾukum — "you and your fathers alike". That is, the inherited end of the chain is taken into the ruling as well.