Word spread through Makkah that al-Walid ibn al-Mughira had praised the Qur'an. The Quraysh grew anxious that their greatest poet had admitted defeat. Abu Jahal went to al-Walid and warned him that his people would not be satisfied until he dissociated himself from Muhammad ﷺ. Al-Walid asked what Abu Jahal wanted him to say.
Abu Jahal suggested one accusation after another. He told al-Walid to call Muhammad ﷺ a madman, then a fortune-teller, then a magician, then a poet. Al-Walid rejected each one, saying he knew it was not true. As the best poet among them, he said this was not the kind of poetry they knew. Abu Jahal insisted that he had to say something. Al-Walid asked to be left alone for a few days.
Al-Walid paced his house, frowning, as he thought about what he would say. Before he could say it, Allah revealed the second portion of Surah al-Muddaththir (Qur'an 74:11-26). The verses described his private thoughts and the expression on his face before he had spoken a word to anyone.
Significance
The Qur'an described, in real time, private thoughts and expressions that no one, not even al-Walid's own family, could have known, before al-Walid ever voiced his conclusion that the Qur'an was 'magic from the ancients... the word of a man.'
Around this time
Other events recorded around the same time. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
Al-Walid ibn al-MughiraDramatizedHis private exclamation while pacing his house is a reconstruction of the moment tafsir describes; that Allah's revelation then exposed his private deliberation before he spoke is attested.
Saying · c. 614 CE
I know what I am going to say!
Said days later, alone in his house, after pacing back and forth trying to settle on a description of the Qur'an that would satisfy Abu Jahal.
“And leave to me [O Prophet] the one I created all by Myself,”
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
“But no! [For] he has been truly stubborn with Our revelations.”
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
“for he contemplated and determined [a degrading label for the Quran].”
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
“May he be condemned! How evil was what he determined!”
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
“May he be condemned even more! How evil was what he determined!”
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
“then turned his back [on the Truth] and acted arrogantly,”
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
“saying, 'This [Quran] is nothing but magic from the ancients.”
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.
This ayah is part of Surah al-Muddaththir's response to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira's private deliberations over how to denounce the Qur'an, described at this event -- classical tafsir identifies this passage (74:11-26) as addressing him directly.