Surah Al-Muddaththir (74) — Ayah 18

(Ayah 18 to 25) {اِنَّهٗ فَكَّرَ وَ قَدَّرَ …:} The disbelievers faced the difficulty that whatever they said about the Quran to keep people away from it, no one was willing to accept it, and even their own hearts denied it. They tried to alienate people from the Quran by calling it poetry, soothsaying, and magic, but they knew and acknowledged that it contained neither the exaggeration or falsehood of poets’ poetry, nor the rhymed prose of soothsayers, nor the charms and spells of magicians. Therefore, the great chiefs among them, including Walid bin Mughirah, after using all their intellectual abilities, reached a conclusion consisting of two points: first, that this is the same magic that has always existed, because this Quran is so effective that it separates brother from brother and father from son, even though they were well acquainted with magic and magicians and knew that not every effective speech is magic. The second conclusion, to diminish the greatness of the Quran, was that this is not divine speech but human speech, even though the challenge was present before them that if this is human speech, then bring forth a surah like it. Even today, research institutions in Europe, America, and other countries offer Muslim students large scholarships to do PhDs in their institutions on this subject, trying to prove that the Quran is the composition of Muhammad (peace be upon him), whereas instead of so much effort, it would have been sufficient for them to present just one surah of three verses, which they could not and cannot do.

From {’’ اِنَّهٗ فَكَّرَ وَ قَدَّرَ ‘‘} to {’’ ثُمَّ اَدْبَرَ وَ اسْتَكْبَرَ ‘‘}, there is mention of those states which they expressed to prove that they were reaching this conclusion after using the last ounce of their intellect, whereas their frowning, making ugly faces, and turning away arrogantly made it clear that they were not saying this with justice, but the only cause was stubbornness and arrogance.