57 Preface ۞ وَلَمّا ضُرِبَ ابنُ مَريَمَ مَثَلًا إِذا قَومُكَ مِنهُ يَصِدّونَAli Quli QaraiWhen the Son of Mary was cited as an example, behold, your people raise an outcry.1 Or ‘laughed at it.’ (Maʿānī al-akhbār, p. 220) Or ‘turn away,’ in accordance with an alternate reading (yaṣuddūn instead of yaṣiddūn) narrated from many authorities. (Muʿjam al-Qirāʾāt al-Qurʾāniyyah, vol. 6, p. 121).