Tafseer of The Cattle · Al-An'aam · 6:74
And [mention, O Muhammad], when Abraham said to his father Azar, "Do you take idols as deities? Indeed, I see you and your people to be in manifest error."
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The discourse on the explanation of His statement: And when Ibrāhīm said to his father Āzar.
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says to His prophet Muḥammad ﷺ: And remember, O Muḥammad — for the sake of your argumentation by which you contend against your people, your disputation with them concerning their gods and what you discuss back and forth with them about that, of what We inspire to you and teach you of proof and indication of the falsehood of that upon which your people persist, and of the soundness of that upon which you persist of religion, and the reality of that with which you argue against them — the argumentation of Ibrāhīm, My intimate friend (khalīl), against his people, and his speaking back and forth with them about the falsehood of that upon which they persisted of the worship of the idols, and his turning to Allah and his contentment with Him as protector and helper, to the exclusion of the idols. Take him, then, as a model (imām) and follow his example, and make his way of life among your people a pattern for yourself — when he said to his father, while separating himself from his religion and his worship of the idols, to the exclusion of his Producer and Creator, condemning it: O Āzar.
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Then the scholars differed concerning who is meant by "Āzar," and what it is: is it a name or an attribute? And if it is a name, who is designated by it? Some of them said: it is the name of his father.
* Mention of who said that:
13434 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: "And when Ibrāhīm said to his father Āzar," he said: the name of his father is "Āzar."
13435 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq related to me, saying: "Āzar" is the father of Ibrāhīm. And he was, according to what has been related to us and Allah knows best, a man from the people of Kūthā, from a village in the black land (al-sawād), the black land of Kūfa.
13436 - Ibn al-Barqī related to me, saying: ʿAmr ibn Abī Salama related to us, saying: I heard Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz mention, saying: he is "Āzar," and he is "Tāriḥ," like "Isrāʾīl" and "Yaʿqūb."
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Others said: it is not the father of Ibrāhīm.
* Mention of who said that:
13437 - Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd and Sufyān ibn Wakīʿ related to us, both of them saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Layth, on the authority of Mujāhid, he said: "Āzar" is not the father of Ibrāhīm.
13437 - Al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz related to me, saying: al-Thawrī related to us, saying: a man informed me, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "And when Ibrāhīm said to his father Āzar," he said: "Āzar" was not his father, it was only an idol.
13439 - Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, he said: "Āzar" is the name of an idol.
13440 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, he said: "And when Ibrāhīm said to his father Āzar," he said: it is the name of his father; and it is said: no, rather, his name is "Tāriḥ," and the name of the idol is "Āzar." He says: do you take Āzar as idols, as gods?
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Others said: it is a term of reproach and condemnation in their speech, and its meaning is: crooked. It is as though he explained it in the sense that he reproached him for his deviation and crookedness from the truth.
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The reciters differed in the recitation of it.
Most of the reciters of the cities recited it: And when Ibrāhīm said to his father Āzar with a fatḥa on "Āzar," it being in apposition to "the father" in the genitive (khafḍ); but because it was a foreign (aʿjamī) name, they gave it a fatḥa, since they did not decline it (allow it to take full inflection), even though it stood in the position of the genitive.
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It has been related from Abū Zayd al-Madīnī and al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī that they both recited it: (Āzaru) with a ḍamma (nominative), as a vocative, in the meaning of: O Āzar.
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As for what is related from al-Suddī in his account that "Āzar" is the name of an idol, and that he only placed it in the accusative in the meaning of: do you take Āzar as idols, as gods? — that is a statement far removed from correctness from the standpoint of the Arabic language. That is because the Arabs do not place a noun in the accusative by a verb after the interrogative particle; one does not say: "Your brother, did you speak?" while intending: did you address your brother?
Abū Jaʿfar said: And the correct recitation in this, in my view, is the recitation of whoever recites the "rāʾ" of (Āzar) with a fatḥa, it being in apposition to the inflection of "the father," and because it stands in the position of the genitive, it took a fatḥa, since it was not declined (did not take full inflection), because it is a foreign name. And I have only preferred this recitation of it because of the consensus of the authoritative proof of the reciters concerning it.
And since that is the correct recitation, and it is not permissible for it to stand in the accusative by the verb that comes after the interrogative particle, the fatḥa of it is correct for you in one of two ways:
Either it is a name for the father of Ibrāhīm — the blessings of Allah be upon him and upon all His prophets and messengers — so that it stands in the position of the genitive by reference back to "the father," but it took a fatḥa for what I have mentioned, namely that, since it was a foreign name, it was not declined and so took a fatḥa, as the Arabs do with the names of foreigners.
Or it is a qualifier (naʿt) of him, so that it likewise stands in the genitive in the meaning of a repetition of the "lām" over it, but because it took the form of "aḥmar" (red) and "aswad" (black) it was not declined, and it was treated as its likes are treated. The explanation of the word is then: and when Ibrāhīm said to his erring father: do you take idols as gods?
And since there is for it no path to correctness except one of these two ways, the more fitting of the two statements for correctness, in my view, is the statement of whoever said: "it is the name of his father," because Allah, the Exalted whose mention is exalted, has informed that it was his father, and it is the transmitted (preserved) statement of the people of knowledge, and not the other statement whose proponent claimed that it is a qualifier.
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If someone says: but the genealogists trace Ibrāhīm back only to "Tāriḥ," how then can "Āzar" be a name for him, while his well-known name is "Tāriḥ"?
He is told: it is not impossible that he had two names, as do many people in our time, and as was the case with many of them in the past. And it is possible that it was a byname (nickname) by which he was titled.
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The discourse on the explanation of His statement: Do you take idols as gods? Indeed, I see you and your people in clear error (6:74).
Abū Jaʿfar said: And this is a report from Allah, the Exalted whose mention is exalted, concerning the statement of Ibrāhīm to his father Āzar, that he said: "Do you take idols as gods?", which you worship and which you take as lord to the exclusion of Allah who created, fashioned, and provided for you?
And "the idols" (al-aṣnām) is the plural of "ṣanam" (idol), and "the idol" is the statue of stone or wood or something else in the form of a human being, and that is "the idol-image" (al-wathan). And sometimes the image that is depicted in the form of a human being on a wall or something else is also called "ṣanam" and "wathan."
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"Indeed, I see you and your people in clear error," he says: "Indeed, I see you," O Āzar, "and your people" who together with you worship the idols and take them as gods, "in error," he says: in straying from the way of truth and deviation from the path of soundness, "clear," he says: it becomes clear to whoever beholds it that it is a deviation from the intended way and a straying from the straight path. He means by that that he and they have strayed from the oneness of Allah (tawḥīd) and His worship, which imposed upon them the obligation to keep worship pure for Him because of His blessings upon them, to the exclusion of gods and idols other than Him.
