Ash-Shu'araa (The Poets)

153. “They said: ‘You are only of the bewitched ones’,”

154. “You are no more than a mortal, like us, so bring you a sign if you are one of the truthful.”

Prophets were denigrated in two things; sorcerer and being bewitched.

The former verses contained the benevolent and reasonable logic of Salih in the face of that deviated group of people. Now these holy verses deliver the logic of those people.

The verses declares:

“They said: ‘You are only of the bewitched ones’,”

Moreover, they used to say that their prophet was a human being like them and no intellect lets them follow and obey such a mortal; so they demanded him a proper sign.

Here is what they said:

“You are no more than a mortal, like us, so bring you a sign if you are one of the truthful.”

The Arabic word /musahhar/ is derived from the word /sihr/ and it means ‘the one who is bewitched’. They believed that the sorcerers sometimes cause the persons’ talent and intellect to become powerless or feeble by means of sorcery.

They not only used this denigration for Prophet Salih (as) but also a group of other prophets were accused of it. As Surah Al-Furqan, No. 25, verse 8 indicates, the oppressors said to the believers that they followed a man who, as the result of being bewitched, has lost his intellect.

Yes, they considered intelligence in the manner that a man behaves according to his surrounding and does the same as others do in his environment, so that he adjust himself with all the vices over there.

If a godly and revolutionary man rose against the corrupted beliefs and a wrong system, according to this logic, they would call him mad, insane and bewitched.