لَقَدْ وُعِدْنَا نَحْنُ وَءَابَآؤُنَا هَـٰذَا مِن قَبْلُ إِنْ هَـٰذَآ إِلَّآ أَسَـٰطِيرُ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ
Laqad wu'idnaa nahnu wa aabaaa'unaa haazaa min qablu in haazaaa illaaa asaateerul awwaleen
یہ وعدہ ہم سے اور ہم سے پہلے ہمارے باپ دادا سے بھی ہوتا چلا آیا ہے (اجی) یہ تو صرف اگلے لوگوں کی کہانیاں ہیں
We have been promised this before, we and our forefathers. This is nothing but tales of the ancients.
Their objection is that the promise is old: they heard it, their fathers heard it, and nothing came of it, so age itself is offered as proof of fiction. Asāṭīr al-awwalīn, the legends of earlier peoples, is a charge laid nine times over, and every time by an objector rather than a believer. What follows answers with three questions about who owns the earth, which they answer correctly themselves.