Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 185 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:185

قَالُوٓا۟ إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مِنَ ٱلْمُسَحَّرِينَ

“They said, "You are only of those affected by magic.”

Saheeh International

Essence

The people of the Thicket reach for Thamud's exact insult, and here it opens a longer list of charges.

A reflection

The same words, a different speaker

These words were first met at 26:153, on the lips of Thamud answering Salih, and the full treatment lives there. Here they return in another land, from another people, against another prophet.

One commentator remarks that the people of the Thicket answered Shu'ayb just as Thamud answered their messenger. Their hearts were alike, he notes, borrowing the Quran's own phrase (2:118). Two communities, separated by time and place, reached for the same sentence.

That is the quiet point of the repetition. Refusal has a small vocabulary. Truth arrives in many forms: a she-camel, a balanced scale, a call to guard yourself before your Creator. The rejection sounds the same every time. He is not in his right mind.

It helps to know this in advance. A believer who meets the same sentence today is not facing something new or personal. He is standing where Salih and Shu'ayb stood, hearing words that have been worn smooth by use.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.