The Quran

Preface

فَقالَ المَلَأُ الَّذينَ كَفَروا مِن قَومِهِ ما نَراكَ إِلّا بَشَرًا مِثلَنا وَما نَراكَ اتَّبَعَكَ إِلَّا الَّذينَ هُم أَراذِلُنا بادِيَ الرَّأيِ وَما نَرىٰ لَكُم عَلَينا مِن فَضلٍ بَل نَظُنُّكُم كاذِبينَ

Yusuf Ali

But the chiefs of the Unbelievers among his people said: “We see (in) thee nothing but a man like ourselves: Nor do we see that any follow thee but the meanest among us, in judgment immature: Nor do we see in you (all) any merit above us: in fact we thing ye are liars!”¹

The Unbelievers were impelled by three powerful human motives of evil to resist Grace: (1) jealousy of other men; they said, “Why, you are no better than ourselves;” half perceiving the Prophet’s superiority, and half ignoring it; (2) contempt of the weak and lowly, who are often better intellectually, morally, and spiritually; they said, “We cannot believe or do what these fellows, our inferiors in social rank, believe or do!”; (3) arrogance and self-sufficiency, which is a vice cognate to (2), looked at from a different angle; they said, “We are really better than the lot of you!” Now the claim made on behalf of God’s Message attacked all these three attitudes. And all they could say against it was to abuse it impatiently, and call it a lie.