Onthur kayfa daraboo laka al-amthala fadalloo fala yastateeAAoona sabeela (surah Al Isra: 48)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(17:48) Behold! what epithets they apply to you! They have gone astray, so they cannot find the Right Way. *54

Unzur kaifa daraboo lakal amsaala fadalloo falaa yastatee`oona sabeelaa

*54) This is to say that they expressed different opinions at different times which contradicted each other. Sometimes they said, "You are a sorcerer" and at other times, "You have been bewitched by someone, or you are a poet or you are possessed of some evil spirit." These contradictory things were a proof that they did not know the reality. Otherwise, they would not have invented a different name to suit each occasion. This also shows that they themselves were not sure of the `charge' they levelled against him. If they called him by one epithet one day, they themselves felt afterwards that it did not fit in. Then they would invent the second epithet and then the third and so on. Thus every new epithet contradicted the previous ones and showed that there was no truth in them, but in their enmity they were inventing one falsehood after the other.