any surplus food for them? Then he rose with Abu Jahl and went to the gathering of his people. He said to them, “You claim that Muhammad is mad. Have you ever seen him suffer a fit of choking?” They said, “By Allah, no.” He said, “You claim that he is a soothsayer. Have you ever seen him practise soothsaying?” They said, “By Allah, no.” He said, “You claim that he is a poet. Have you ever heard him utter poetry?” They said, “By Allah, no.” He said, “You claim that he is a liar. Have you ever known him to lie about anything?” They said, “No”—and before his Prophethood, the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, had been called al-Amīn, “the Trustworthy,” because of his truthfulness.

Quraysh then said to al-Walid, “Then what is he?” He reflected to himself, then looked, then frowned, and said, “He is nothing but a sorcerer. Have you not seen how he separates a man from his family, his clients, and his children? He is a sorcerer, and what he says is transmitted sorcery.” (1) This is the meaning of His words, exalted is He: “Indeed, he reflected,” concerning Muhammad and the Quran, “and devised,” within himself, what he could say about Muhammad and the Quran.

“May he be destroyed! How he devised! Again, may he be destroyed! How he devised! Then he looked; then he frowned and scowled; then he turned away and acted arrogantly, and said, ‘This is nothing but transmitted sorcery. This is nothing but the speech of a human being.’ I shall drive him into Saqar.” (19–26)

“May he be destroyed” is a curse. Al-Zuhri said: “He shall be punished.” “How he devised!” is an expression of astonishment, condemnation, and rebuke. “Again, may he be destroyed! How he devised!” is repeated for emphasis. It is also said to mean: May he be cursed, whatever kind of statement he devised—just as one says, “I shall certainly strike him, whatever he does,” meaning, whatever he may do.

“Then he looked”: seeking something with which to refute and reject the Quran. “Then he frowned and scowled”: he grimaced, knitted his brow, and looked with intense aversion, like one preoccupied and pondering something. “Then he turned away” from faith “and acted arrogantly”: he was too proud when called to it. “And said, ‘This’”—that is, what Muhammad recites—“is nothing but transmitted sorcery”: something related and narrated from sorcerers. “This is nothing but the speech of a human being”: that is, of Yasar and Jabr, from whom he claimed Muhammad received it. It was also said that he claimed Muhammad narrated it from Musaylimah, the man of al-Yamamah. Allah Most High said, “I shall drive him into Saqar”: I shall admit him into Saqar; and Saqar is one of the names of Hell.