Peace Samson
you said
If you read the context of the verse then it's simply saying that the idolaters cannot use the excuse that they are idolaters because there forefathers were idolaters.
First of all what you are mentioning is not in verse 7:172 it is verse 7:173 which is an addition to the fact that God will not accept that said excuse (fathers were idolaters) along with the matter that they did not remember they had testified and witness that God is their Lord.
7:172 And [mention] when your Lord took from the children of Adam - from their loins - their descendants and made them testify of themselves, [saying to them], "Am I not your Lord?" They said, "Yes, we have testified." [This] - lest you should say on the day of Resurrection, "Indeed, we were of this unaware."We are in fact not aware of this oath we took. If it not be that this verse was recalled / mentioned to us through the Quran, this would possibly be a plausible excuse.
"Indeed, we were of this unaware". But the fact that God is saying
"lest you should say".
you said
God is simply saying that at the time when God brought forth a generation of people from the children of Adam that God made them testify that there is only one God. That's the only clear AND useful meaning we can derive from that verse.
First of all is not a generation of people always from the Children of Adam? It just does not make sense how you explained it. Children of Adam are mostly if not always referred to Mankind.
Also I would have to kindly and respectively say that this verse is not simply just saying that. I would have to admit that it also is not a verse that can easily be interpolated and also has many opinions and at the end God knows best.
I am not going to attempt to translate the words in this verse as I am having a hard time understanding the first part "With akhatha Rabbuka
min Banee Adama min thuhoorihim thurriyyatahum"
But the fact that the children of Adam all of them in my humble opinion testified to this and they cannot say OF THIS OATH(3aan Hatha) they were unaware because God is saying that here is the reminder that each one took.
This opinion can also be supported by possibly verse 4:1 and 33:72
33:72 Indeed, we offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was unjust and ignorant.God knows best
Also Adam was created from mud and shaped. There is no mention of humans before or after him that were made to testify and there's no mention of it in the Bible either.
Just so we are on the same page, no one from what I know is saying verse 7:172 is referring to a time when we were humans before Adam. This could of been a spiritual oath before humanity came to Earth, or possibly before a Soul is created into a Human. No one is stating that humans lived before this. After all after this life the souls will not possibly be humans, they will be a creation we do not know.
A reference to the hereafter
56.035
‘Lo” We have created them a (New Creation)”
(Inna (Indeed we/ Lo) Inshanahunna (We have produced them) Inshaa (Into a creation))I did once give a interpolation on verse 7:172.
In my humble opinion, verse 7:172 is giving us human beings today after reading the Quran the reminder of an oath that was taken by arguably all human souls before they entered this world. Now that God has reminded us through this revelation the Holy Quran the oath that was taken, we shall have no excuse to say we did not remember. As the Quran is now reminding us.
Or another interpolation would be that 'here is the oath that you took with God that you dont remember, "Am I not your Lord? They said: Yea, verily we testify" So here it is now reminded to you the oath in this Quran so that on the Day of Resurrection you do not say and give an excuse of this oath we were unaware.'
Verse 7:173 seems to suggest that incase you try to blame your fathers(ones following falsehood) for your destruction as you have been warned before you came to this world and after with this Quran.
This is my humble opinion. God knows best.
May God guide us even more Insha'Allah
Salam
At the end God knows best.
Salam