17فَليَدعُ نادِيَهُMuhammad Asadand then let him summon [to his aid] the counsels of his own [spurious] wisdom,1Lit., "'his council". According to the commentators who tend to interpret verses such as this in purely historical terms, this may be a reference to the traditional council of elders (dar an- nadwah) in pagan Mecca; but more probably, I think, it is an allusion to the arrogance which so often deludes man into regarding himself as "self-sufficient" (verses 6-7 above).