"Have you considered the adulterer, the thief, and the consumer of wine? What do you say about them?" They said: "Allah and His Messenger know best." He said: "These are immoral acts (fawahish), and for them there is punishment."
The second interpretation:
8356 - My father told us, Muqatil ibn Muhammad told us, Waki‘ told us, from Sufyan, from Mansur, from Ibrahim: "And when they commit an indecency," he said: The indecency is injustice (zulm), and injustice is an indecency.
The third interpretation:
8357 - My father told us, Yahya ibn al-Mughirah told us, Jarir informed us, from Mansur, from Mujahid, regarding His saying: "And when they commit an indecency, they say: We found our fathers on it," he said: Their indecency was that they used to circumambulate the House (the Ka‘bah) while naked.
His saying, the Almighty: "They say: We found our fathers on it."
8358 - Ahmad ibn ‘Uthman ibn Hakim al-Awdi reported to us in what he wrote to me, Ahmad ibn Mufaddal told us, Asbat told us, from al-Suddi: Regarding His saying: "And when they commit an indecency, they say: We found our fathers on it," he said: A tribe of the Arabs from the people of Yemen used to circumambulate the House while naked. If it were said to them: "Why do you do that?" They would say: "We found our fathers on it."
His saying, the Almighty: "And Allah has commanded us to do it."
8359 - And by the same chain from al-Suddi: Regarding His saying: "And Allah has commanded us to do it," he said: They used to circumambulate the House while naked, and they said: "Allah commanded us to do it."
His saying, the Almighty: "Say: Indeed, Allah does not command immorality," to the end of the verse.
8360 - Abu Sa‘id ibn Yahya ibn Sa‘id al-Qattan told us, Zayd ibn al-Hubab told us, Musa ibn ‘Ubaydah told me, he said: I heard Muhammad ibn Ka‘b al-Qurazi saying: The polytheistic men used to circumambulate the House during the day while naked, and the women at night while naked, and they would say: "We found our fathers on it, and Allah has commanded us to do it." When Islam and its noble character came, they were forbidden from that, but they said: "We found our fathers on it, and Allah has commanded us to do it." "Say: Indeed, Allah does not command immorality." And the immorality is: circumambulating the House while naked; they say about Allah that which they do not know."