It is said: I endeavored in the matter of so-and-so, if I rectified it or corrupted it by my endeavor. And his counterpart: his predecessor, because each of them is in pursuit of outdoing the other in catching up with him. If he outpaces him, it is said: he outdid him and he was outdone. The meaning is: they endeavored in its meaning by corruption from the slander against it, as they called it: magic, poetry, and legends, and from discouraging people from it, whether preceding or competing in their claim, and their estimation hoping that their plot against Islam would succeed for them. If you say: it seems that the analogy should be that it is said: I am but a bearer of good news and a warner for you, due to the mention of the two groups after it. I say: the discourse is directed to the polytheists. And O people: a call to them, and they are those about whom it was said: 'Did they not travel in the land?' and they were described as hasty. And the believers were silenced, and their reward is to provoke them.