The Quran

Preface

وَقالَ الَّذينَ كَفَروا لَن نُؤمِنَ بِهٰذَا القُرآنِ وَلا بِالَّذي بَينَ يَدَيهِ ۗ وَلَو تَرىٰ إِذِ الظّالِمونَ مَوقوفونَ عِندَ رَبِّهِم يَرجِعُ بَعضُهُم إِلىٰ بَعضٍ القَولَ يَقولُ الَّذينَ استُضعِفوا لِلَّذينَ استَكبَروا لَولا أَنتُم لَكُنّا مُؤمِنينَ

Yusuf Ali

The Unbelievers say: “We shall neither believe in this scripture nor in (any) that (came) before it.”¹ Couldst thou but see when the wrong-doers will be made to stand before their Lord, throwing back the word (of blame)² on one another! Those who had been despised will say to the arrogant ones:³ “Had it not been for you, we should certainly have been believers!”

To the Pagans all scriptures are taboo, whether it be the Qur-ān or any Revelation that came before it. The people of the Book despised the Pagans, but in their arrogant assumption of superiority, prevented them, by their example, from accepting the latest and most universal Scripture when it came in the form of the Qur-ān. This relative position of men who fancy themselves on their knowledge, and men whom they despise but exploit and mislead, always exists on this earth. I have mentioned the people of the Book and the Pagan Arabs merely by way of illustration.
One disbelief is as bad as another. There is little to choose between them.
But when the final account will be taken, there will be mutual recriminations between the one and the other.
The Pagans will naturally say to the people of the Book; 'You misled us; you had previous Revelations, and you should have known how God sent His Messengers; had it not been for your bad example, we should have received God’s Revelation and become Believers.” Or the humble followers will say this to their leaders, or those less gifted will say to those by whom they were misled and exploited. The dichotomy is between such as pretentiously held their heads high in the world and such as they profited by but held in contempt.