‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas has explained that these words mean ‘to find fault’, i.e. attribute defects to the Quran and the possessor of the Quran and thus alienate people from both the book and the man (Tafsir ibn Kathir). There are two methods of expressing an opinion about a thing or a person—one is criticism and the other is denigration. Criticism means analysing the matter under consideration on the basis of facts. Contrary to this, denigration means desisting from presenting any arguments in connection with the matter under consideration and simply trying rather to find defects in it, cast a slur on it, thus making it the target of condemnation. The method of criticism is the most legitimate, while the method of ferretting out or imputing defects is the way of unbelievers. Moreover, the latter method amounts to denying the signs of God; because every true argument is a sign of God. Those people who do not bow down before an argument and try to belittle it by imputing defects to it and making false allegations against it are, in fact, denying the signs of God. Such people will be treated, in the Hereafter, as deserving of the severest punishment.