Having cited these two lines of verse, Ibn Kathīr said:
“This pre-Islamic poet thus acknowledged the existence of the Maker, His knowledge of particulars, the Resurrection, recompense, and the recording of deeds in scrolls for the Day of Resurrection”1.

Ibn Jarīr said: “The following verse is attributed to one of the benighted people of pre-Islamic times:

That young woman struck her half-breed—
May the Most Merciful, my Lord, sever her right hand!

And Salāmah ibn Jandal al-Tuhawī said:

You hastened against us; twice we hastened against you;
The Most Merciful binds and unbinds as He wills”2.

Evidence of this abounds. Nevertheless, they were polytheists because they worshipped others alongside Allah.

Denying that the polytheists acknowledged Allah’s existence, the writer says on p. 10: “Indeed, their disbelief went as far as Allah Most High tells us in His Mighty Book, when He says:

‘And when it is said to them, “Prostrate to the Most Merciful,” they say, “And what is the Most Merciful? Should we prostrate to that which you order us?” And it increases them in aversion.’ 3

Do these people, then, affirm the existence of the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful?!!”

I say: This writer writes according to his own whims, without referring to the scholars’ words or benefiting from their explanations. This is one of the causes of his misguidance and deviation.

Ibn Jarīr says in his Quran commentary: “Some foolish people have claimed that the Arabs were unfamiliar with al-Rahmān (the Most Merciful), and that this name did not exist in their language. That, they claimed, was why the polytheists said to the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—‘And what is