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Sura 21
Aya 3
3
لاهِيَةً قُلوبُهُم ۗ وَأَسَرُّوا النَّجوَى الَّذينَ ظَلَموا هَل هٰذا إِلّا بَشَرٌ مِثلُكُم ۖ أَفَتَأتونَ السِّحرَ وَأَنتُم تُبصِرونَ

Muhammad Asad

their hearts set on passing delights; yet they who are [thus] bent on wrongdoing conceal their innermost thoughts1 [when they say to one another], "Is this [Muhammad] anything but a mortal like yourselves? Will you, then, yield to [his] spellbinding eloquence with your eyes open?"2
  • See next note.
  • As regards my occasional rendering of sihr (lit., "sorcery" or "magic") as "spellbinding eloquence", see 74:24, where this term occurs for the first time in the chronology of Qur'anic revelation. By rejecting the message of the Qur'an on the specious plea that Muhammad is but a human being endowed with "spellbinding eloquence", the opponents of the Qur'anic doctrine in reality "conceal their innermost thoughts": for, their rejection is due not so much to any pertinent criticism of this doctrine as, rather, to their instinctive, deep-set unwillingness to submit to the moral and spiritual discipline which an acceptance of the Prophet's call would entail.