Translation of the meanings Ayah 28 Surah Al-A‘rāf - English Translation - Dr. Waleed Bleyhesh Omary - The Noble Qur'an Encyclopedia

Ayah: 28

وَإِذَا فَعَلُواْ فَٰحِشَةٗ قَالُواْ وَجَدۡنَا عَلَيۡهَآ ءَابَآءَنَا وَٱللَّهُ أَمَرَنَا بِهَاۗ قُلۡ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَا يَأۡمُرُ بِٱلۡفَحۡشَآءِۖ أَتَقُولُونَ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ

(28) When they commit a vice^[1597], they say: “We found our fathers thus doing and Allah bade us to it”. Say ˹Muhammad˺: “Allah does not bid vice. Do you say regarding Allah that which you have no knowledge of?”

[1597] The heathen practice of the Arabs who used to circumambulate around the Kaʿbah naked as part of their so-called pilgrimage rites (cf. al-Ṭabarī, Ibn Taymiyyah, Majmūʿ al-Fatāwā, 21/276, Ibn Rajab, Fatḥ al-Bārī, 2/335), is being alluded to here and is something of a subtext to be found throughout these opening passages. It bears special significance because it is indicative of how morally low they stooped; that is for taking Satan as ally and following in his footsteps generation after another. Devotional acts of worship are not to be mixed with base desires and lewdness. This ‘vice’ is the vilest of all acts, and sound human nature rebels against it (as much as Adam and Eve instinctively wanted to cover up from each other in Paradise) (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr).