Surah Ash-Shu'ara: (69 - 77) And recite to them the news...

Know that the Almighty mentioned at the beginning of the Surah the intense grief of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) due to the disbelief of his people. Then, He mentioned the story of Moses (peace be upon him) to let Muhammad know that a similar tribulation was experienced by Moses. Following that, He mentioned the story of Abraham (peace be upon him) to let Muhammad know that Abraham's grief for this reason was even more severe than his own. This is because a great tribulation for Abraham (peace be upon him) was witnessing his father and his people in the Fire, yet he was unable to save them except through supplication and admonition, saying to them: {What do you worship?}

Abraham (peace be upon him) knew that they worshipped idols, but he asked them to show them that what they worshipped possessed nothing worthy of worship, just as you ask a slave trader, "What is your property?" while knowing that his property is slaves, and then you say, "Slaves are not property."

They answered Abraham (peace be upon him) by saying: {We worship idols and remain devoted to them.} Al-'Ukūf (devotion) means staying steadfast upon something. They said, {We remain} because they used to worship them during the day but not at night.

Know that it would have sufficed them to answer simply by saying, "We worship idols." However, they added to the answer by saying: {idols and remain devoted to them}. They mentioned this addition to show the delight and pride they felt in worshipping idols.

Then Abraham (peace be upon him) responded, pointing out the corruption of their doctrine: {Does what you call upon hear you when you call, or benefit you or harm you?}

The author of Al-Kashshāf said that in {hear you} (yasma'ūnakum), there must be an implied deleted object, meaning: "Do they hear your call?" Qatādah recited it as: {Do they hear you?} meaning: "Do they hear the response to your call, and are they capable of that?"

The essence of the argument Abraham (peace be upon him) presented is that the usual state of one who worships another is to resort to that object in supplication to know his intention upon hearing the call, and then to receive a response by granting a benefit or averting harm. He said to them: If the one you worship cannot hear your call to know your purpose, and even if he knew it, he could not dispense benefit or avert harm, how do you permit yourselves to worship something described this way?

Faced with this overwhelming proof, his father and people found no way to refute this argument, so they resorted to saying: {We found our fathers doing so.} This is one of the strongest proofs for the falsehood of blind imitation (taqlīd) and the necessity of adhering to inferential reasoning (istidlāl). For if we reversed the matter, praising imitation and condemning reasoning, it would mean praising the method of the disbelievers, which God condemned, and condemning the method of Abraham (peace be upon him), which God praised.

Abraham (peace be upon him) answered them by saying: {He said, "Then have you considered what you have been worshipping— you and your ancient fathers?} He intended by this that falsehood does not change whether it is ancient or recent, nor whether the number of its adherents is large or small.

As for His saying: {Indeed, they are enemies to me, except the Lord of the worlds}: There are several questions regarding this:

The answer is twofold:

1. First View: God Almighty said in Surah Maryam (19:82) regarding idols: {Nay! They will deny their worship and become opponents to them.} It is interpreted that God will bring to life what they worshipped of idols so that they may rebuke them and disavow them. Based on this view, the idols will become enemies to these disbelievers in the Hereafter, so Abraham (peace be upon him) used the term "enemy" based on this interpretation.
2. Second View: Because the disbelievers worshipped and glorified them, hoping for benefits and the removal of harms, these idols took the position of rational, living beings in the belief of the disbelievers. Furthermore, they became means by which a person is cut off from happiness and reaches misery. Since these idols took the position of living beings and acted as preventers of benefit and bringers of harm, they naturally took the position of enemies. Thus, Abraham (peace be upon him) applied the term "enemy" to them.
3. Third View: What is meant by {Indeed, they are enemies to me} is the enmity of those who worship them. If it is asked, "Why did he not say, 'Indeed, those who worship idols are enemies to me' to make the statement literally true?" The answer is: Because what was previously mentioned was what they worshipped, not the worshippers themselves.

The answer is: He (peace be upon him) framed the issue in terms of himself, meaning: "I reflected upon my own situation and realized that worshipping them is worshipping an enemy, so I avoided it, preferring the worship of the One from Whom all good originates. By doing so, he showed them that this was advice he gave to himself. If they reflect, they will say, 'Abraham only advised us with what he advised himself,' which would make his advice more likely to be accepted."

The answer is: The singular form ('aduww) and the plural form (a'dā') can both be used to mean one or many. It is like the verse:

I saw them as an enemy, though they were friends. (A line of poetry)

And like His saying: {And they are an enemy to you} (Al-Kahf: 50). The precise explanation is what was previously mentioned concerning His saying: {Indeed, I am a messenger from the Lord of the worlds} (Ash-Shu'ara: 16).

The answer is that it is a disconnected exception (istithnā' munqaṭi'), as if he were saying: "But the Lord of the worlds [is not an enemy]."