ٱلْقَلَم : ١٥

  • إِذَا When
  • تُتۡلَىٰ are recited
  • عَلَيۡهِ to him
  • ءَايَٰتُنَا Our Verses
  • قَالَ he says
  • أَسَٰطِيرُ Stories
  • ٱلۡأَوَّلِينَ (of) the former (people)
When Our verses are recited to him, he says, "Legends of the former peoples."
When Our signs - Al-Qur'an - are recited to him, he says, that they are [merely], 'Fables of the ancients!', in other words, he denies them [in arrogance] on account of the mentioned things which We have bestowed on him out of Our grace (a variant reading [for an of the previous verse] has [the interrogative] a-an).