are more capable of inventing it, structuring it, and composing it than Muḥammad—peace and blessings of God be upon him—(1). And if you are not more capable of it than he is, you will never be unable—when you are all together—to do what Muḥammad was capable of doing from that while he was alone (2), if you are truthful in your claim and assertion that Muḥammad forged it and invented it, and that it is from someone other than Me.

And the scholars of interpretation differed regarding the interpretation of His statement: {And if you are in doubt concerning that which We have sent down to Our servant, then produce a surah of the like thereof and call your witnesses other than God, if you are truthful (23)}

Ibn ʿAbbās said regarding what:

496- Muḥammad ibn Ḥumayd narrated to us, he said: Salamah narrated to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī Muḥammad, the freed slave of Zayd ibn Thābit, on the authority of ʿIkrimah, or on the authority of Saʿīd, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās: "And call your witnesses other than God," meaning: your helpers upon that which you are upon, if you are truthful.

497- Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr narrated to me, he said: Abū ʿĀṣim narrated to us, on the authority of ʿĪsā, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid: "And call your witnesses," people who bear witness.

498- Al-Muthannā narrated to me, he said: Abū Ḥudhayfah narrated to us, he said: Shibl narrated to us, on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, the like thereof.

499- Abū Kurayb narrated to us, he said: Wakīʿ narrated to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of a man, on the authority of Mujāhid, he said: A people who bear witness for you.