Qul araaytum in kana min AAindi Allahi thumma kafartum bihi man adallu (surah Fussilat: 52)

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

(41:52) Tell them, (O Prophet): 'Did you ever consider: if this Qur'an is indeed from Allah and you still deny it, who can be in greater error than he who goes far in fiercely opposing it?' *69

Qul araiaitum in kaana min `indil laahi summa kafar tum bihee man adallu mimman huwa fee shiqaqim ba`eed

*69) It dces not mean that they should believe in it only owing to the danger that if it were really from Allah they would be inviting their own doom by denying it, but it means this "It is not wisdom that you should be bent upon opposing it stubbornly without seriously trying to understand what it says. You cannot assert that you have come to know that this Qur'an is not from God, and you have known with certainty that God has not sent it. Obviously, your refusal to believe in it as Divine Word is not based on knowledge, but on conjecture, which may possibly be right as well as wrong. Now consider both the possibilities. If your conjecture were right, then, according to your own thinking, both the believers and the unbelievers would be equal, because both will became dust after death, and there is no life hereafter where belief and unbelief might be distinguished. But, if their Qur'an were really from God, and that of which it is forewarning did really take place, then think what doom you would invite for yourselves by denying it and opposing it like that. Therefore, your own interest demands that you should give up stubbornness and consider this Qur'an seriously; if even after due consideration, you decide not to believe in it, you may not, but you should not oppose it to the extent that you start employing falsehood and deception and persecution to bar the way of its message and prevent others from believing in it, not being content with your own unbelief.