An Islamic story of “satanic verses” was widely recounted by Muslim commentators in the early centuries of Islam to explain several verses in this sūra and in Sūra 22. Since 1988, discussion of the story has become extraordinarily controversial because of global Muslim reaction to a novel called The Satanic Verses written by Salman Rushdie. The story is important, however, because it raises the question of the sources of the recitations gathered into the Quran.