They said: No, by Allah! They have nothing of that. Rather, we found our forefathers doing the same. That is, like our high-status actions. Then they portrayed the state of their forefathers in their souls, magnifying their matter. So they said: They do, meaning: we will do as they did because they are more deserving of us not to oppose them, given their precedence over us in existence. They are more steadfast than us in intellect and have greater experience. If they had not seen that as good, they would not have persisted in it. This is despite the fact that if they had taken a sensory path that caused them sensory harm, they would never have taken it. However, this religion makes it easy for people to adhere to false imitation, both ancient and modern.