And when He, glorified and exalted is He, forbade them from following the enemy, He condemned them for following him without any evidence, but merely by imitating the ignorant. He said, adding to ﴿And among the people﴾ [Al-Baqarah: 165], expressing astonishment at them: ﴿And when it is said﴾ meaning: from any speaker. And since the address was to the people in general, and most of them were imitators, especially of their parents, He returned the pronoun, and the intended meaning is most of them. He said: ﴿Follow﴾ meaning: strive in repelling the desires that the devil has blown into them. And in His saying to them ﴿What Allah has revealed﴾ meaning: the One who has comprehensive knowledge and complete power, there is a reference to that Book, there is no doubt in it, and what is similar to it. ﴿They said: No﴾ meaning: we will not follow what Allah has revealed, but ﴿We will follow﴾ meaning: we will strive to follow ﴿what we found﴾ meaning: we discovered. Al-Harali said: from [ilfa], which is finding a matter as the one who is discerning in it or looking at it is accustomed to. ﴿Our forefathers﴾ meaning: to what they are upon of ignorance and incapacity. He said: so it implies that the customs of the forefathers are prohibited until they are witnessed by a witness of the fatherhood of religion. Thus, there is a warning regarding the ranks between the state of disbelief and the lowest fitna, which is such that people tend to follow the customs of their forefathers. It has ended. And when they refused except to adhere to the imitation of the ignorant, they descended from the elevation to the ranks of those with knowledge by sound reasoning. He, glorified and exalted is He, denied that to them and said, reproaching them: ﴿Even if﴾ meaning: will they follow their forefathers while their ﴿forefathers did not understand﴾ with the insights of their hearts ﴿anything﴾ of the rational matters ﴿and they do not guide﴾ with the sight of their eyes to anything of the tangible matters.