وَمَا أَضَلَّنَا إِلَّا الْمُجْرِمُونَ (99)
(26:99) and they were criminals indeed who led us astray. *69
*69) This is how the followers will treat their religious leaders and guides, whom they served and revered like deities in the world, whose words and patterns of behaviour they took as authoritative and before whom they presented all sorts of offerings in the world. In the Hereafter when the people will find that their guides had misled them and caused their ruin as well as their own, they will hold them responsible for it and will curse them. The Qur'an has presented this horrible scene of the Hereafter at several places so as to admonish the blind followers to see and judge carefully whether their guides in this world were leading them on the right path or not. For instance: "As each generation will be entering Hell, it will curse its preceding generation till all generations shall be gathered together there; then each succeeding generation will say regarding the preceding one, `O Lord, these were the people who led us astray; therefore give them a double chastisement of the Fire.' Allah will reply, `There is a double chastisement for every one but you know it not'." (Al-A`raf: 38). "And the disbelievers will say, `Our Lord, bring those jinns and men before us, who led us astray so that we may trample them under our feet and put them to extreme disgrace'." (Ha Mim Sajdah: 29). "And they will say, `Our Lord, we obeyed our chiefs and our great men and they misled us from the right path; our Lord, give them a double chastisement and curse them with a severe curse'." (Al-Ahzab: 67-68).