Verse. 1191

٨ - ٱلْأَنْفَال

8 - Al-Anfal

وَاِذَا تُتْلٰى عَلَيْہِمْ اٰيٰتُنَا قَالُوْا قَدْ سَمِعْنَا لَوْ نَشَاۗءُ لَقُلْنَا مِثْلَ ہٰذَاۗ۝۰ۙ اِنْ ہٰذَاۗ اِلَّاۗ اَسَاطِيْرُ الْاَوَّلِيْنَ۝۳۱
Waitha tutla AAalayhim ayatuna qaloo qad samiAAna law nashao laqulna mithla hatha in hatha illa asateeru alawwaleena

English

Ahmed Ali

When Our messages were read out to them, they said: "We have heard. We could certainly compose (writings) like them if we choose. They are but only tales of long ago."

31

Tafseer

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (and when our revelations) detailing commands and prohibitions (are recited unto them) to al-nadr ibn al-harth and his companions (they say: we have heard) what muhammad (pbuh) has said. (if we wish we can speak the like of this) the like of what muhammad (pbuh) recites. (lo! this) which muhammad (pbuh) says (is naught but fables) tales (of the men of old) and their stories.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : and when our verses, namely, the qur’ān, were being recited to them, they said, ‘we have already heard! if we wish we can speak the like of this — al-nadr b. al-hārith said this, for he used to travel on trading business to al-hīra, where he would buy books containing the tales of the persians, and would recount these to the meccans; this, qur’ān, is nothing but the fables, the lies, of the ancients’.