﴿ وَبِكُفْرِهِمْ وَقَوْلِهِمْ عَلَىٰ مَرْيَمَ بُهْتَٰنًا عَظِيمًۭا ﴾

“and for their refusal to acknowledge the truth, and the awesome calumny which they utter against Mary,”

And for their disbelief and their uttering against Mary a tremendous calumny. To transgress the limit is error just as it is error to diminish or subtract from the truth. Some people slandered Mary and accused her of fornication. Others transgressed the limit in a terrible calumny saying her son was the son of God. Both of these groups fell into error. It is said that Mary [���� ������] was a friend waliyya of God through whom two groups become miserable: those who exceed all bounds ahl al-ifrāṬ and those who fall short ahl al-tafrīṬ. This is also how it is with His friends-those who reject [the friends] suffer from their lack of respect for them and those who believe things about [the friends] that cannot be said of them suffer from their excessive adulation of them. This is something that most of the great ones have had to endure.