And when it was established that His saying, glorified and exalted is He, is indeed the saying of His Messenger, blessings and peace be upon him, to us, and that he does not speak out of desire, He negated what they attribute to him. So He began with poetry, which is what a person says from his own self in a specific meter, whether it is true or false. It is necessary for it to adhere to the meter and rhyme, which requires a certain effort that the Qur'an is far from. It is [with] its participation in the rhyme in the deficient effort for meaning, higher than it in the meter that gives it charm and sweetness. So He said: "And what is it?" meaning [this] mention in the essence of its matter and its appearance. He confirmed the negation by saying: "By the saying of a poet," meaning he comes with words that are rhymed and measured with the intention of meter. It was said that it is not the saying of one who is like that because it does not conform to the meter [in it] except in rare instances in relation to the entirety of the Qur'an. It is certain that no poet would accept that, which is that he would place himself in the position of composition and reliance on the obligation of meter, then come with words most of which are not measured. Thus, he certainly knew that what conformed to the meter in it was not intended, so it is not poetry.

And when the contradiction of the Qur'an to poetry was hidden in that only poets know it, and they are few among the people, and the majority do not know that, He concluded the verse with faith, which is the belief in the unseen. So He, glorified and exalted is He, said: "Little do you believe," meaning you do not find the belief that is faith except in a little existence or time. This is because I have informed you of that in other places, yet you did not believe, and among you are many poets who know with complete knowledge that it contradicts poetry. Some of them have informed you of that, like Al-Walid ibn Al-Mughira and Utbah ibn Rabiah and others. Then you do not follow its fruits, which is the belief in Allah and His Messenger, and their little faith is the acknowledgment of those who acknowledged among their poets that it is not poetry, and their sincerity in monotheism in times of necessity and their singling out the Creator with creation and lordship, which is a linguistic faith [not a legal one].