of grey ... and my pulling and yanking of her did not cease ... until blood rose to cover the head. (1)

He claimed that he intended by that to report about the woman that she was in Abū Jād, so he made his statement, "When I saw her affair was in ḥuṭṭī," stand in place of his report about her that she was in Abū Jād, since that statement of his indicates to his listener what his statement, "When I saw her affair was in Abū Jād," would indicate to him.

Others said: Rather, the beginnings of the surahs were opened with them so that the ears of the polytheists would be opened to listen to it—since they enjoined one another to turn away from the Qur'an—so that when they listened to it, the composed discourse from it would be recited to them.

And some of them said: The letters that are the openings of the surahs are letters with which God opens His speech.

If it is said: Can there be anything in the Qur'an that has no meaning?

It is said (2): The meaning of this is that He opened with them so that it might be known that the surah before it had ended and that He had begun another, making this a sign of the separation between the two. That is found in the speech of the Arabs; a man among them recites poetry and says:

Nay—and a land whose inhabitants are not human, (3)

and he says:

No, nay—what stirred up griefs and sadness that grieved, (4)

and "nay" (bal) is not part of the line nor counted in its meter, but rather speech is cut off by it and another is resumed.