Overview (Verse 26)

Truth and Fables
 
In order to give more credence to their false description of the Qur’ān and to turn people away from it, a man like Mālik ibn al-Nađr, who had learnt some Persian epics about Rustom and other Persian legendary heroes, used to sit at a short distance from the Prophet when he recited the Qur’ān. After the Prophet Muĥammad (peace be upon him) had finished, Mālik ibn al-Nađr used to say to his audience: “If Muĥammad could tell you some fables of the ancients, I can tell you better ones.” He would then relate to them some of the epics and histories he had learnt, hoping that in this way, he could prevent them from listening to the Qur’ān. Indeed, the chiefs of Makkah who commanded a position of authority and respect used to forbid others to listen to the Qur’ān, and they tried to stay away from its reading so that they did not submit to its powerful logic and irrefutable argument. In other words, they feared to be influenced by it: “They forbid [others] to listen to it and go far away from it. They ruin none but themselves, though they do not perceive it.” (Verse 26)
 
In this battle between the powerful authority of truth and the feeble structure of falsehood, it was not enough that a man like Mālik ibn al-Nađr sat down to relate the epics and histories of the ancients. Instead, the Quraysh chiefs forbade their followers from listening to the Qur’ān and they also distracted themselves lest they too be unable to resist its influence. A story mentioned in the history of the Prophet about al-Akhnas ibn Sharīq, Abū Sufyān ibn Ĥarb and `Amr ibn Hishām, and their secret listening to the Qur’ān is well known.
 
All this effort which they exerted to refrain and prevent others from listening to the Qur’ān and allowing themselves to be influenced by it or respond to it was a recipe for disaster: “They ruin none but themselves, though they do not perceive it.” (Verse 26) Whom would a person ruin if all his efforts were geared towards preventing himself and others from listening to proper guidance and following the right way that ensures salvation?
 
Poor and wretched indeed are those who take such a goal for themselves, even though they may appear to other people as very powerful and having much influence. Wretched indeed they are because their efforts ensure their own ruin both in this life and in the life to come. At times, it may appear to them and to others that they are on a winning course, but this is all delusion.