54 Preface إِن نَقولُ إِلَّا اعتَراكَ بَعضُ آلِهَتِنا بِسوءٍ ۗ قالَ إِنّي أُشهِدُ اللَّهَ وَاشهَدوا أَنّي بَريءٌ مِمّا تُشرِكونَYusuf Ali“We say nothing but that (perhaps) some of our gods may have seized thee1 with imbecility.” He said: “I call God to witness, and do ye bear witness, that I am free from the sin of ascribing, to Him,See n. 1548 above. Continuing their argument, the Unbelievers make a show of making all charitable allowances for Hud, but in reality cut him to the quick by bringing in their false gods. “To be quite polite,” said they, “we will not say that you are exactly a liar! Perhaps you have been touched with imbecility! Ah yes! You rail against what you call our false gods! Some of them have paid you out, and made you a fool! Ha! ha!” This mockery is even worse than their other false accusations. For it sets up false gods against the One True God, even in dealing with Hud. So Hud replies, with spirit and indignation: “At least keep God’s name out of your futile talk! You know as well as I do, that I worship the One True God! You pretend that your false gods can smite a true Prophet of God! I accept the challenge. Scheme and plot against me as you may, all of you-you and your gods! See if you have any power! I ask for no quarter from you! My trust is in God.”