Overall meaning : Almighty Allah says: We have sent you, Muhammad, lest the Quraysh idolaters say when We inflict punishment on them on account of their unbelief, ‘Our Lord, had you sent us a messenger before meting out punishment to us, we would have followed your revelations, and would have declared Your oneness and have been among the believers.’
Yet even when the Qur’an did come to them from Us, they said, ‘Why has Muhammad not been given the Qur’an entire in a single revelation just as Moses was given the Torah all in one go?’ and ‘Why has he not been given the same miracles that Moses was given?’ But did they not previously disbelieve and reject the Torah and the miracles that Moses was given?! They said, ‘Both the Torah and the Qur’an are works of magic magicians supporting one another to mislead people by their magic.’ And they declared, ‘We disbelieve and reject both of them.’
Say, Muhammad, to the Quraysh idolaters, ‘Produce, then, a book revealed by Allah that guides to the truth better than them, so that I may follow it, if your claim is true.’ If they do not respond to you and follow the truth, then know, Muhammad, that they are led by their whims and desires. None is further astray from the truth than those who follow their whims and desires and abandon Allah’s guidance. Allah does not guide those who wrong themselves on account of their unbelief.