Calling the Qur'an Sorcery

So the people said, "You tell us what you think, we'll abide by it." Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah said, "I want to hear from you." They said, "We'll claim that he's a soothsayer." He responded, "No, he isn't a soothsayer. I have seen soothsayers, and he doesn't engage in their rhymed mumbling." People aren't going to believe you if you say that he's a soothsayer. They said, "Well, let's say that he's crazy, possessed by spirits." He said he isn't crazy — "We have seen and known those who are crazy, and he has none of their choking, erratic movement, and mumbling. He doesn't show the signs of people who are insane or possessed by jinn." They said, "Well, let's claim that he's a poet." He said, "No, he's no poet. We know poetry in all its metrical forms, and what he speaks isn't poetry." And al-Walīd, in another narration, says: "I am the most expert among you in poetry. I know all of its forms, and the Qur'an isn't poetry." They said, "Let's claim that he's a sorcerer." He said, "No, he's no sorcerer. We've seen sorcerers and their magic, and he doesn't do any of their tying and untying."

So they mentioned all that they had, and al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah kept saying that none of it made sense. Eventually they said, "Well, what are we going to say?" So he thought about it for a while, and then he came back and said, "Well, let's just say that he's a sorcerer." Before that, he said, "By God, there is splendour in what he speaks. In essence, he's like a palm tree whose branches give much fruit. All you have been saying won't be believed. The closest thing is for you to say: this man is a sorcerer who comes between a man and his religion, a man and his father, a man and his wife, a man and his brother, and a man and his tribe." That's the closest they could come to agree on — that he's a sorcerer.

That is when Allah (swt) revealed the āyāt: