Popular Translations
Muhammad Asad
or lest you say, "Verily, it was but our forefathers who, in times gone by, began to ascribe divinity to other beings beside God; and we were but their late offspring: wilt Thou, then, destroy us for the doings of those inventors of falsehoods?"
Arthur John Arberry
or lest you say, 'Our fathers were idolaters aforetime, and we were seed after them. What, wilt Thou then destroy us for the deeds of the vain-doers?
Yusuf Ali (Saudi Rev. 1985)
Or lest ye should say: "Our fathers before us may have taken false gods, but we are (their) descendants after them: wilt Thou then destroy us because of the deeds of men who were futile?"
Arabic
أَوۡ تَقُولُوۤا۟ إِنَّمَاۤ أَشۡرَكَ ءَابَاۤؤُنَا مِن قَبۡلُ وَكُنَّا ذُرِّیَّةࣰ مِّنۢ بَعۡدِهِمۡۖ أَفَتُهۡلِكُنَا بِمَا فَعَلَ ٱلۡمُبۡطِلُونَ ١٧٣
Transliteration (2021)
aw taqūlū innamā ashraka ābāunā min qablu wakunnā dhurriyyatan min baʿdihim afatuh'likunā bimā faʿala l-mub'ṭilūn