Transliteration:( Qaaloo bal wajadnaaa aabaaa 'anaa kazaalika yaf'aloon )
They said, "Nay, we found our fathers doing so" [80].
This response reveals a common excuse for shirk: blind imitation of ancestors. Instead of offering any logical justification, the people of Ibrahim (عليه السلام) cling to tradition, admitting they follow idols simply because their forefathers did so. The verse highlights how cultural conformity can become a barrier to truth, even when reason and evidence call for change.
The tafsir of Surah Ash-Shura verse 74 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Shura ayat 69 which provides the complete commentary from verse 69 through 77.
(26:74) They answered: “No; but we found our forefathers doing so.”[53]
53. That is, we do not worship and serve them because they hear our prayers and supplications, or that they can harm and benefit us, but because we have seen our elders worshiping and serving them. Thus, they themselves admitted that the only reason of their worshiping the idols was the blind imitation of their forefathers. In other words, they meant this: There is nothing new in what you are telling us, We know that these are idols of stone and wood, which do not hear anything, nor can harm or do good, but we cannot believe that our elders who have been worshiping them since centuries, generation after generation, were foolish people. They must have had some good reason for worshiping these lifeless images, so we are doing the same as we have full faith in them.
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