﴿ بَلْ قَالُوٓا۟ أَضْغَٰثُ أَحْلَٰمٍۭ بَلِ ٱفْتَرَىٰهُ بَلْ هُوَ شَاعِرٌۭ فَلْيَأْتِنَا بِـَٔايَةٍۢ كَمَآ أُرْسِلَ ٱلْأَوَّلُونَ ﴾

““Nay,” they say, “[Muhammad propounds] the most involved and confusing of dreams!” “Nay, but he has invented [all] this!” - “Nay, but he is [only] a poet!” - [and,] “Let him, then, come unto us with a miracle, just as those [prophets] of old were sent [with miracles]?””

Nay bal in the three instances below effects a transition from one subject to another but they say regarding those parts of the Qur’ān he the Prophet has brought to them are ‘A muddle of nightmares a confusion of things he has seen in his sleep. Nay he has fabricated it he has invented it; nay he is a poet and what he has brought is merely poetry! So let him bring us a sign such as was sent to the ancients’ like the she-camel Sālih the staff and the glowing hand of Moses. God exalted be He says