وَإِذَا قِيلَ لَهُمُ ٱتَّبِعُوا۟ مَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ قَالُوا۟ بَلْ نَتَّبِعُ مَا وَجَدْنَا عَلَيْهِ ءَابَآءَنَآ ۚ أَوَلَوْ كَانَ ٱلشَّيْطَـٰنُ يَدْعُوهُمْ إِلَىٰ عَذَابِ ٱلسَّعِيرِ Qur’an Luqman (31:21)Wai tha qeela lahumu ittabiAAoo m a anzala All a hu q a loo bal nattabiAAu m a wajadn a AAalayhi a b a an a awalaw k a na a l shshay ta nu yadAAoohum il a AAa tha bi a l ssaAAeer i
Regarding the implications of the term "Satan" in this context, see note [10] on 2:14 and note [16] on 15:17 . As in many other places in the Qur'an, the above verse expresses an oblique condemnation of the principle and practice of taqlid (see Razis observations quoted in note [38] on 26:74 ).
They do not realize that in the spiritual world, as in the physical world, there is constant progress for the live ones: they are spiritually dead, as they are content to stand on ancestral ways, many of them evil, and leading to perdition.