Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:74

"And when Abraham said"—in the view of some researchers—is in the accusative case, serving as the object of an implied verb. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) is being addressed, and this is linked to "Say: Do we call upon..." rather than "Establish [the prayer]," because that would corrupt the meaning. The meaning is: "O Muhammad, recount to these disbelievers—after you have denied their worship of that which can neither benefit nor harm, and after you have established that the only true guidance is the guidance of Allah and that which follows from His affairs—the time when Abraham (peace be upon him), whom they claim to be following in his religion, reproached his father, Azar, for worshipping idols." For that is what confounds them and proclaims the corruption of their ways.

Azar (vocalized like Adam) is a non-Arabic proper noun for the father of Abraham (peace be upon him), who was from a village in the Sawad of Kufa. It is a substitute (badal) for "Abraham" or an explanatory apposition (‘atf bayan) to it. Al-Zajjaj said: "There is no disagreement among the genealogists that the name of Abraham’s father was Tarah, with a ta (t), an alif, an open ra (r), and an unpointed ha (h)." It is also narrated with an kha (kh). Ibn al-Mundhir narrated with a sound chain from Ibn Jurayj that his name was Tirah or Tarih. Ibn Abi Hatim narrated from Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that the name of Abraham’s father was Yazir, and his mother’s name was Mathli.

Mujahid, Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, and others held the view that Azar is not his actual name. Those who held this view differed: some said it was a nickname for his father; some said it was the name of his grandfather; some said it was the name of his paternal uncle (the uncle and the grandfather are called 'father' metaphorically). Others said it is the name of an idol—a view narrated from Ibn Abbas, al-Suddi, and Mujahid. Some said it is an adjective in their language meaning "the mistaken one." From Sulayman al-Taymi, it is reported: "It reached me that it means 'the crooked one'." Others said it means "the elderly, decrepit man" in the Khwarizmian language. Based on the view that it is an adjective, it is non-declinable (ghayr munsarif) because it follows the pattern of its equivalent fa'il (with an open 'ayn), as this pattern is usually non-declinable due to its frequency in non-Arabic proper nouns. It is said that it is better to say it became so dominant that it was treated as a proper noun. Some make it an adjective derived from al-azr, meaning "strength," or al-wizr, meaning "sin"; in that case, it is non-declinable due to the adjectival quality and the verb-like pattern, as it is on the scale of af'al. Based on the view that it means "idol," the speech contains the omission of a genitive, with the genitive construct taking the place of the missing noun: "worshipper of Azar."

Ya'qub read it as Azaru, with a damma, in the vocative case, and used this as evidence for it being a proper name, based on the principle that the vocative is not dropped except from proper names, and its omission from adjectives is anomalous. That is: "O Azar, do you take idols as gods?"—meaning, "Do you make them, for yourself, gods?"—with the denial directed at the act of taking, regardless of the plurality, intending the generic form based on occurrence. It was also read as A-Azaran, with two hamzahs: the first is interrogative and open, the second is open or kasra, being either original or substituted for a waw. Whoever read it this way read "take" (tattakhidhu) by omitting the hamzah. It is the object of an implied verb, meaning: "Do you worship Azar?"—assuming it is the name of an idol—and "do you take..." serves as an explanation and confirmation; it falls under the scope of the denial. Or it is the object (of the reason/purpose) if it means "strength," i.e., "For the sake of strength, do you take idols as gods?" The speech is a denial of his seeking honor through them, in the manner of the Almighty’s saying: "Do you seek honor with them?" It is also permitted that it be a circumstantial qualifier (hal) or a second object of "take."

Some parsed Azar—in the reading of the majority—as the object of an implied verb, also meaning an idol, i.e., "Do you worship Azar?" and made His saying (the Almighty), "Do you take...", an explanation and confirmation, meaning that it is a clue to the omission, not in the sense of the "explanation" (tafsir) as defined in the chapter of occupation (ishtighal), for what comes after the hamzah cannot govern what is before it, and that which does not govern cannot explain a governor, as has been established among them.

The vast majority of the Sunni scholars have relied upon the fact that Azar was not the father of Abraham (peace be upon him), and they have claimed that there was no disbeliever among the ancestors of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) at all, due to his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): "I was continually transferred from the loins of the pure to the wombs of the pure." For the polytheists are unclean, and there is no evidence to rely upon to restrict the purity to "purity from illicit intercourse." The criterion is the generality of the expression, not the specificity of the cause. They have authored treatises on this subject and provided evidence for it. The claim that this is the view of the Shia, as Imam al-Razi claimed, stems from a lack of research. Most of these scholars hold that Azar is the name of Abraham’s paternal uncle. The application of "father" to an uncle is found in His saying (the Almighty): "Or were you witnesses when death approached Jacob, when he said to his sons, 'What will you worship after me?' They said, 'We will worship your God and the God of your fathers, Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac.'" This also contains the application of "father" to the grandfather.

Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Qurazi said: "The maternal uncle is a father, and the paternal uncle is a father," and he recited this verse. In the Tradition, it is said: "Respond to Abu al-Abbas." Some supported the claim that the true father of Abraham (peace be upon him) was not a disbeliever, but rather the disbeliever was his uncle, through what was narrated by Ibn al-Mundhir in his commentary... [The text continues with discussions on the use of sternness as a pedagogical tool, though noting that the efficacy of gentleness versus severity varies by context, and concludes with an analysis of the origins of idol worship, tracing it back to the star-worshipping beliefs of the ancient world and the later historical distortions introduced by Amr ibn Luhayy].