The Quran

200

فَإِذا قَضَيتُم مَناسِكَكُم فَاذكُرُوا اللَّهَ كَذِكرِكُم آباءَكُم أَو أَشَدَّ ذِكرًا ۗ فَمِنَ النّاسِ مَن يَقولُ رَبَّنا آتِنا فِي الدُّنيا وَما لَهُ فِي الآخِرَةِ مِن خَلاقٍ

Muhammad Asad

And when you have performed your acts of worship, [continue to] bear God in mind as you would bear your own fathers in mind - nay, with a yet keener remembrance!¹ For there are people who [merely] pray, "O our Sustainer! Give us in this world" - and such shall not partake in the blessings of the life to come.

Most of the commentators see in this passage a reference to the custom of the pre-Islamic Arabs to extol, on the occasion of various gatherings, the greatness and the supposed virtues of their ancestors. Some of the earliest Islamic scholars, however - e.g., Ad-Dahhak, Ar-Rabi and Abu Muslim - are of the opinion that what is meant here are actual fathers (or, by implication, both parents), whom a child usually considers to be the embodiment of all that is good and powerful (see Razi's commentary on this verse).