4 Preface وَقالَ الَّذينَ كَفَروا إِن هٰذا إِلّا إِفكٌ افتَراهُ وَأَعانَهُ عَلَيهِ قَومٌ آخَرونَ ۖ فَقَد جاءوا ظُلمًا وَزورًاYusuf AliBut the misbelievers say: “Naught is this but a lie1 which he has forged, and others have helped him at it.” In truth it is they who have put forward an iniquity and a falsehood.Ifk, which I have translated as a “lie” may be distinguished from zur at the end of this verse, translated “falsehood”. The “lie” which the enemies attributed to the Holy Prophet of God was supposed to be something which did not exist in reality, but was invented by him with the aid of other people: the implication was that (1) the Revelation was not a revelation but a forgery, and that (2) the things revealed e.g., the news of the Hereafter, the Resurrection, the Judgment, the Bliss of the Righteous and the sufferings of the Evil, were fanciful and had no basis in fact. Delusion is also suggested. The reply is that, so far from that being the case, the facts were true and the charges were false (zur)-the falsehood being due to the habits of iniquity for which the Misbelievers’ whole mental and spiritual attitude was responsible. (R).