Signs & Miracles · The Language Argument in Full
Al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah's Verdict
Handle with care. This narration comes through Muslim sources and versions differ in wording. Do not quote it as verbatim history or attribute a fixed script to al-Walid.
In short
- 1.Al-Walid was the Quraysh's acknowledged authority on Arabic speech.
- 2.The brief was practical: agree one label so pilgrims could be warned off consistently.
- 3.His reported assessment praised its sweetness, its fruitfulness and its overpowering quality.
- 4.He settled on 'magic' — an admission of effect dressed as an accusation.
The claim being examined
The Quraysh sent their finest literary judge to produce a dismissal of the Qur'an ahead of the pilgrimage season. His reported verdict was the opposite of what was commissioned.
The Islamic position
A hostile expert, tasked with categorising the Qur'an as poetry, magic or madness, conceded its quality before recommending the label of magic.
Analysis
This episode is preserved in the sirah (the recorded life of the Prophet (SAW)) and in the classical commentaries, and it is usually read together with Q 74:11-25, which describes a man weighing up what to say. Be honest about its weight: it comes from Muslim sources and reports a private deliberation, so it illustrates rather than proves. What it does show is how the earliest tradition understood the opposition — not as a dispute about whether the speech was extraordinary, but about where it came from. Reaching for the word "magic" concedes there is an effect to explain while refusing the explanation on offer, in the same way as the boast recorded in Q 8:31.
From the Qur'an
فَقَالَ إِنْ هَـٰذَآ إِلَّا سِحْرٌۭ يُؤْثَرُ إِنْ هَـٰذَآ إِلَّا قَوْلُ ٱلْبَشَرِ
faqāla in hādhā illā siḥ'run yu'tharu in hādhā illā qawlu l-bashari
Then he said: this is nothing but magic handed down; this is nothing but the word of a human being.
إِنَّهُۥ فَكَّرَ وَقَدَّرَ فَقُتِلَ كَيْفَ قَدَّرَ ثُمَّ قُتِلَ كَيْفَ قَدَّرَ
innahu fakkara waqaddara faqutila kayfa qaddara thumma qutila kayfa qaddara
Indeed he thought and deliberated. So may he be destroyed — how he deliberated. Then may he be destroyed — how he deliberated.
Sources
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