بَلْ عَجِبْتَ وَيَسْخَرُونَ
Bal'ajibta wa yaskharoon
You marvel as they scoff,
Indeed, you marvel, while they mock,
Two readings of the opening verb have come down from the early reciters: ʿajibta, addressed to the Prophet, and ʿajibtu, which puts the wonder in God's own mouth, and both are carried in the canonical set. The particle bal turns the passage from the guarded heavens above to the people below who watch all of it and laugh. What astonishes, on either reading, is the mockery itself.