«وَكَانَ بِالْمَجْلِسِ كَهْلٌ جَالِسٌ فِي الْحَاشِيَةِ»
An older man sat at the edge of the gathering.
Kahl means a mature or older man; al-ḥāshiyah is the margin or side of the assembly. The narrator does not introduce him through a title or an illustrious lineage, but through his unassuming position.
The staging creates an ironic contrast. Those at the centre have offered a confident verdict; the person who will challenge them has been overlooked at the margin. Literary status and physical position are not necessarily the same.
The repetition of al-ḥāshiyah stresses both the physical margin and the speaker’s low profile before he becomes central to the debate.