10 Preface وَلَقَدِ استُهزِئَ بِرُسُلٍ مِن قَبلِكَ فَحاقَ بِالَّذينَ سَخِروا مِنهُم ما كانوا بِهِ يَستَهزِئونَYusuf AliMocked were (many) messengers before thee; but their scoffers were hemmed in by the thing that they mocked.1(Cf. 13:32 and 36:30). “The scoffers were mocked by the thing that they mocked” would express epigrammatic ally part of the sense, but not the whole. “Hemmed in” implies that the logic of events turned the tables, and as a man might be besieged and surrounded by an enemy in war, and would be forced to surrender, so these mockers will find that events would justify Truth, not them. The mockers of Jesus-where were they when Titus destroyed Jerusalem ? The mockers who drove out Muḥammad from Mecca-what was their plight when Muḥammad came back in triumph and they sued for mercy- and he gave it to them! According to the Latin proverb, Great is truth, and must prevail.