وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا عَبَدْنَا مِن دُونِهِ مِن شَيْءٍ نَّحْنُ وَلَا آبَاؤُنَا وَلَا حَرَّمْنَا مِن دُونِهِ مِن شَيْءٍ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ فَعَلَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۚ فَهَلْ عَلَى الرُّسُلِ إِلَّا الْبَلَاغُ الْمُبِينُ (35)
(16:35) The mushriks say, "Had Allah willed, neither we nor our forefathers would have worshipped any other than Allah nor made anything unlawful without His will . " *30 Such excuses were put forward also by those who went before them. *31 Have the Messengers any more responsibility than to convey the Message clearly?
*30) In order to understand the significance of this argument the reader should keep in view vv. 148-150 and E.N.'s 124-126 of Chapter VI, for this has been cited and answered there.
*31) That is, "Your argument" is not a new one but the same old one which had always been offered by erroneous people who went before you. Today you arc, like them, excusing yourselves for your deviation and evil conduct, saying that it is the will of God. You know that this is a lame excuse that has been invented to delude yourselves, and to escape from admonition."
This answer also contains a subtle retort to the objection of the disbelievers that the Qur'an consisted merely of old stories of the ancients (v. 24). They meant to imply that the Prophet had nothing new to offer. So he was repeating the same old stories that had been repeated over and over again since the time of Prophet Noah. The retort is this: "If the Holy Prophet was not presenting anything new but was reciting the old stories of the ancients, you yourselves are not putting forward any new excuse in defence of your evil deeds, but the same old excuse that was put forward by the people who went before you. "