Surah Al-A'raf
أَوْ تَقُولُوٓا۟ إِنَّمَآ أَشْرَكَ ءَابَآؤُنَا مِن قَبْلُ وَكُنَّا ذُرِّيَّةً مِّنۢ بَعْدِهِمْ ۖ أَفَتُهْلِكُنَا بِمَا فَعَلَ ٱلْمُبْطِلُونَ
Au taqūlū innamā asyraka ābā'unā min qablu wa kunnā żurriyyatam mim ba‘dihim, afatuhlikunā bimā fa‘alal-mubṭilūn(a).
Or [lest] you say, "It was only that our fathers associated [others in worship] with Allah before, and we were but descendants after them. Then would You destroy us for what the falsifiers have done?"
📝 Footnotes
295) So that the polytheists would not say that their ancestors had previously associated partners with God, while they themselves were completely unaware that associating partners with God was wrong. They would not be able to argue that they were merely imitating their ancestors and thus did not deserve to be punished.