that I am among the wealthiest of them.’

Abū Jahl said, ‘Then make a statement about him that will reach your people, showing that you repudiate what he has brought or at least that you dislike it.’

Al-Walīd replied, ‘And what shall I say? By Allah, there is no man among you more versed in poetry than I—no one better acquainted with its short poems or its long odes, nor with the verses of the jinn. By Allah, what he recites resembles none of this. Indeed, by Allah, his speech possesses a sweetness, it is clothed in a captivating beauty; its upper part is laden with fruit, its lower part pours forth abundantly. It rises above all else and nothing can rise above it; it shatters whatever lies beneath it.’

Abū Jahl insisted, ‘Your people will never be pleased with you until you say something against it.’ Al-Walīd said, ‘Then leave me to reflect.’ After reflecting he declared, ‘This is sorcery handed down, a legacy of magic from others.’ Thereupon the verses were revealed: ‘Leave Me with the one whom I created alone…’ (Surah al-Muddaththir 74:11), meaning the rest of the passage.

Al-Ḥākim narrated this report with a connected chain. Maʿmar transmitted it from ʿAbbād ibn Manṣūr, from ʿIkrimah as a mursal report, while Ḥammād ibn Zayd related an abridged version from Ayyūb, from ʿIkrimah, also mursal.

Yūnus ibn Bukayr, conveying from Ibn Isḥāq, said: Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad told me, on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr—or ʿIkrimah—from Ibn ʿAbbās, that al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah met with a group of Quraysh. He was one of their elders, and the pilgrimage season had arrived. He said, ‘Delegations of the Arabs will soon come to you, and they have heard of your companion. Agree upon a single opinion concerning him and do not differ, lest you contradict one another.’ They said, ‘Then speak and set out a position for us.’ He replied, ‘Rather, you speak and I will listen.’

They said, ‘We shall say he is a kāhin (soothsayer).’ He answered, ‘He is not a kāhin; I have seen soothsayers, and he does not mutter the incantations or practice the sorcery of a kāhin.’ They said, ‘We shall say he is mad.’ He replied, ‘He is not mad; we have seen madness and know its choking fits, its seizures, and its whisperings—none of that is in him.’ They said, ‘Then we shall say he is a poet.’ He responded, ‘He is not a poet; we know poetry in all its meters—its rajaz, its hazaj, its qaṣīd, its compact and expansive forms—and what he brings is not poetry.’

They said, ‘Then we shall say he is a sorcerer.’ He said, ‘He is not a sorcerer; we have seen sorcerers and their sorcery, and he does not blow into knots nor…’