Ibn Isḥāq related—through a shaykh from Egypt, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that al-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith once rose and said:

“O people of Quraysh, by Allah, a trial has befallen you the like of which you have never faced. Muhammad lived among you as a youthful lad—of all of you the most agreeable, the most truthful in speech, and the most trustworthy—until the day you saw strands of gray at his temples. When he then came to you with the message he now brings, you cried, ‘Sorcerer!’ No, by Allah, this is not sorcery; we have seen magicians with their blowing and knot-tying.

“You said, ‘Soothsayer!’ No, by Allah, he is no soothsayer; we have observed the diviners and heard their rhymed prose.

“You said, ‘Poet!’ No, by Allah, he is no poet; we have recited poetry ourselves and are familiar with all its forms—its ḥazaj, its rajaz, and its qarīḍ.

“You said, ‘Madman!’ Yet no, by Allah, he is not mad; we have seen those seized by madness, and he displays neither their convulsive choking nor their incoherent ravings.

“O assembly of Quraysh, consider—”