Surah Al Anbiya Tafseer

بَلْ قَالُواْ أَضْغَاثُ أَحْلَمٍ بَلِ افْتَرَاهُ بَلْ هُوَ شَاعِرٌ

Nay, they say:"These are mixed up false dreams!

Nay, he has invented it! -- Nay, he is a poet!

Here Allah tells us of the stubbornness and heresy of the disbelievers, and the various things they said about the Qur'an, and how they were confused and misguided about it. Sometimes they described it as magic, and sometimes they described it as poetry, or mixed up false dreams, or a fabrication.

As Allah says:

انْظُرْ كَيْفَ ضَرَبُواْ لَكَ الاٌّمْثَالَ فَضَلُّواْ فَلَ يَسْتَطِيعْونَ سَبِيلً

See what examples they have put forward for you. So they have gone astray, and never can they find a way. (17:48)

فَلْيَأْتِنَا بِأيَةٍ كَمَا أُرْسِلَ الَاوَّلُونَ

Let him then bring us an Ayah like the ones that were sent before!

They were referring to the she-camel of Salih, and the signs of Musa and `Isa.

And Allah says,

وَمَا مَنَعَنَأ أَن نُّرْسِلَ بِالاٌّيَـتِ إِلاَّ أَن كَذَّبَ بِهَا الاٌّوَّلُونَ

And nothing stops Us from sending the Ayat but that the people of old denied them. (17:59)

So Allah said here:

مَا امَنَتْ قَبْلَهُم مِّن قَرْيَةٍ أَهْلَكْنَاهَا أَفَهُمْ يُوْمِنُونَ