Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:60

In reply, his people said: إِنَّا لَنَرَ‌اكَ فِي ضَلَالٍ مُّبِينٍ (|"Indeed we see you in an obvious error|" ). The word: مَلَاء (mala' ) is used for chiefs, headmen and empowered elders of a community or group. The sense of what his peo¬ple said in response to his call was to tell him that he was actually try¬ing to wean them away from their ancestral faith and that all these ideas of rising on some last day and being rewarded or punished were nothing but superstition.