21:51 [al-anbiya, Mecca 73]
AND, INDEED, long before [the time of Moses] We vouchsafed unto Abraham his consciousness of what is right; 59 ' and We were aware of [what moved] him
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(21:52) when he said unto his father and his people, "What are these images to which you are so intensely devoted?"
21:53
They answered: "We found our forefathers worshipping them." (21:54} Said he: "Indeed, you and your forefathers have obviously gone astray!" (21:55} They asked: "Hast thou come unto us [with this claim] in all earnest - or art thou one of those jesters?"
(21:56} He answered: "Nay, but your [true] Sustainer is the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth - He who has brought them into being: and I am one of those who bear witness to this [truth]!"
[[Context verses - 21:48
AND, INDEED, We vouchsafed unto Moses and Aaron [Our revelation as] the standard [al-Furqan] by which to discern the true from the false, 57 and as a [guiding] light and a reminder for the God- conscious
(21:49) who stand in awe of their Sustainer although He is beyond the reach of human perception, 58 and who tremble at the thought of the Last Hour.
21:50
And [like those earler revelations,] this one, too, is a blessed reminder which We have
bestowed from on high: will you, then, disavow it? ]]
[[Asad’s notes - 57 See note 38 on 2:53. The reference to the revelation bestowed on the earlier prophets as "the standard by which to discern the true from the false" (al-furqan) has here a twofold implication: firstly, it alludes to the Qur'anic doctrine - explained in note 5 on 2:4 - of the historical continuity in all divine revelation, and, secondly, it stresses the fact that revelation - and revelation alone - provides an absolute criterion of all moral valuation. Since the Mosaic dispensation as such was binding on the children of Israel alone and remained valid only within a particular historical and cultural context, the term al-furqan relates here not to the Mosaic Law as such, but to the fundamental ethical truths contained in the Torah and common to all divine revelations.
58 For an explanation of the above rendering of the expression bi'1-ghayb, see note 3 on 2:3.
59 The possessive pronoun "his" affixed to the noun rushd (which, in this context, has the meaning of "consciousness of what is right") emphasizes the highly personal, intellectual quality of Abraham's progressive realization of God's almightiness and uniqueness (cf. 6:7-79 as well as note 69 on 6:83); while the expression min qabl - rendered by me as "long before [the time of
Moses]" - stresses, once again, the element of continuity in man's religious insight and experience. ]]