The people of the tongue [i.e., eloquent speakers], if a man speaks to him, he takes away his reason. So look for people from among your nobles who are counted, whose lineages are known, and send them out on every path of the paths of Makkah at the head of every night or two nights. Whoever comes wanting him, turn them away from him. So a group of them went out on every path. Whenever a man would arrive as a delegate for his people to see what Muhammad says, he would descend upon them. They would say to him: "I am such-and-such, son of such-and-such." He would recognize him by his lineage and say: "I will inform you about Muhammad," for he does not want him to go to him, "he is a lying man; no one has followed him in his affair except for the foolish, the slaves, and those in whom there is no good. As for the elders of his people and their best, they have separated from him." So one of them would return. That is [the meaning of] His saying: "And when it is said to them, 'What has your Lord sent down?' They say, 'Legends of the former peoples.'" So if the delegate was one whom Allah had willed for guidance, and they said to him the like of that regarding Muhammad, he would say: "How evil a delegate I am to my people if I came [this far], until I reached [within] a day's journey, [only] to return before I meet this man and see what he says. I will bring my people a clarification of his affair." So he would enter Makkah and meet the believers and ask them: "What does Muhammad say?" They would say: "Good... 'For those who do good in this world is good.'" He says: He said, "And the home of the Hereafter is better," and it is Paradise (1).

12504 - From Qatadah regarding the verse: He said, "Some people from the polytheists of the Arabs used to sit on the path of whoever came to the Prophet of Allah (peace be upon him). When they passed by, they would ask them, and they would inform them of what they heard from the Prophet (peace be upon him), so they would say, 'It is only legends of the former peoples' (2)."

His saying: "That they may bear their own burdens in full on the Day of Resurrection and some of the burdens of those whom they misguide without knowledge."

12505 - From Ibn Abbas regarding His saying: "That they may bear their own burdens in full on the Day of Resurrection and some of the burdens of those whom they misguide without knowledge" - he says: They bear, along with their own sins, the sins of those whom they misguide without knowledge, and that is like His saying: "And [they will surely] carry their own burdens and [other] burdens along with their burdens" (3).

12506 - From Mujahid regarding His saying: "That they may bear their own burdens in full on the Day of Resurrection..." the verse. He said: Their bearing of the sins of themselves and the sins of those who obeyed them, and that does not lighten anything of the punishment for those who obeyed them (4).

12507 - From al-Rabi ibn Anas regarding His saying: "That they may bear their own burdens in full..." the verse. He said: The Prophet said: "Whoever calls to a misguidance and is followed, he shall have the like of the burdens of those who followed him, without anything being diminished from their burdens. And whoever calls to guidance and is followed, he shall have the like of their rewards without anything being diminished from their rewards" (5).