Tafsir of Surah An-Nahl - Verse 44

Only Human Messengers have been Sent

Ad-Dahhak said, reporting from Ibn `Abbas: "When Allah sent Muhammad as a Messenger, the Arabs, or some of them, denied him and said, `Allah is too great to send a human being as a Messenger.' Then Allah revealed:

أَكَانَ لِلنَّاسِ عَجَبًا أَنْ أَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَى رَجُلٍ مِّنْهُمْ أَنْ أَنذِرِ النَّاسَ

(Is it a wonder to people that We have sent Our Inspiration to a man from among themselves (saying): "Warn mankind...") and He said,

وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ إِلاَّ رِجَالاً نُّوحِى إِلَيْهِمْ فَاسْأَلُواْ أَهْلَ الذِّكْرِ إِن كُنْتُم لاَ تَعْلَمُونَ

(And We sent not (as Our Messengers) before you (O Muhammad) any but men, whom We sent Revelation. So ask Ahl Adh-Dhikr, if you know not.). meaning, (ask) the people of the previous Books, were the Messengers that were sent to them humans or angels If they were angels, then you have the right to find this strange, but if they were human, then you have no grounds to deny that Muhammad ﷺ is a Messenger. Allah says:

وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ إِلاَّ رِجَالاً نُّوحِى إِلَيْهِمْ مِّنْ أَهْلِ الْقُرَى

(And We sent not before you (as Messengers) any but men to whom We revealed, from among the people of townships. ) 12:109 and not from among the people of heaven as you say." It was reported by Mujahid from Ibn `Abbas that what is meant by Ahl Adh-Dhikr is the People of the Book. This is as Allah says:

أَوْ يَكُونَ لَكَ بَيْتٌ مِّن زُخْرُفٍ أَوْ تَرْقَى فِى السَّمَآءِ وَلَن نُّؤْمِنَ لِرُقِيِّكَ حَتَّى تُنَزِّلَ عَلَيْنَا كِتَابًا نَّقْرَءُهُ قُلْ سُبْحَـنَ رَبِّى هَلْ كُنتُ إَلاَّ بَشَرًا رَّسُولاً - وَمَا مَنَعَ النَّاسَ أَن يُؤْمِنُواْ إِذْ جَآءَهُمُ الْهُدَى إِلاَّ أَن قَالُواْ أَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ بَشَرًا رَّسُولاً

(Say: "Glorified be my Lord! Am I anything but a man, sent as a Messenger" And nothing prevented men from believing when the guidance came to them, except that they said: "Has Allah sent a man as (His) Messenger") (17:93-94)

وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا قَبْلَكَ مِنَ الْمُرْسَلِينَ إِلاَّ إِنَّهُمْ لَيَأْكُلُونَ الطَّعَامَ وَيَمْشُونَ فِى الاٌّسْوَاقِ

(And We never sent before you (O Muhammad) any of the Messengers but verily, they ate food and walked in the markets.) (25:20)

وَمَا جَعَلْنَـهُمْ جَسَداً لاَّ يَأْكُلُونَ الطَّعَامَ وَمَا كَانُواْ خَـلِدِينَ

(And We did not create them (the Messengers, with) bodies that did not eat food, nor were they immortals.)(21:8)

قُلْ مَا كُنتُ بِدْعاً مِّنَ الرُّسُلِ

(Say (O Muhammad ): "I am not a new thing among the Messengers. ") 46:9,

قُلْ إِنَّمَآ أَنَاْ بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُوحَى إِلَىَّ

(Say (O Muhammad): "I am only a man like you. It has been revealed to me.") 18:110 Then Allah informs those who doubt that a Messenger can be a human to ask those who have knowledge of the previous Scriptures about the Prophets who came before: were their Prophets humans or angels Then Allah mentions that He has sent them,

بِالْبَيِّنَـتِ

(with clear signs), meaning proof and evidence, and

وَالزُّبُرِ

(and Books Zubur), meaning Scriptures. Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid, Ad-Dahhak and others said: Zubur is the plural of Zabur, and the Arabs say, Zaburtul-Kitab meaning, "I wrote the book." Allah says:

وَكُلُّ شَىْءٍ فَعَلُوهُ فِى الزُّبُرِ

(And everything they have done is noted in (their) Records (of deeds) Zubur) (54:52)

وَلَقَدْ كَتَبْنَا فِى الزَّبُورِ مِن بَعْدِ الذِّكْرِ أَنَّ الاٌّرْضَ يَرِثُهَا عِبَادِىَ الصَّـلِحُونَ

(And indeed We have written in Az-Zabur after the Dhikr that My righteous servant shall inherit the land (i.e. the land of Paradise).) (21:105) Then Allah says:

وَأَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الذِّكْرَ

(And We have also revealed the Dhikr to you), meaning the Qur'an,

لِتُبَيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ مَا نُزِّلَ إِلَيْهِمْ

(so that you may clearly explain to men what was revealed to them,) meaning, sent down from their Lord, because you know the meaning of what Allah has revealed to you, and because of your understanding and adherence to it, and because We know that you are the best of creation and the leader of the Children of Adam. So that you may explain in detail what has been mentioned in brief, and explain what is not clear.

وَلَعَلَّهُمْ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ

(so that perhaps they may reflect.) meaning, they should examine themselves and be guided by it, so that they may attain the victory of salvation in this world and the next.

Hadith is Necessary to Understand Qur'an : The Rejection of Hadith is Really the Rejection of the Qur'an

The word: اَلذِّکر (adh-dhikr) in verse 44: وَأَنزَلْنَا إِلَيْكَ الذِّكْرَ‌ لِتُبَيِّنَ لِلنَّاسِ : "And We sent down the Message (adh-dhikr: The Qur’ an) so that you explain to the people," means, by consensus, the Holy Qur’ an - and, in this verse, the Holy Prophet has been given the assignment of explaining the meaning of verses revealed to him before people. Herein lies an open proof that the correct understanding of the realities, insights and injunctions of the Holy Qur'an depends on the statement of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad al-Mustafa ﷺ . If everyone, by simply acquiring the knowledge of Arabic language and literature, were to become capable of understanding the injunctions of the Qur’ an as Divinely intended, then, the mission of explaining assigned to the Holy Prophet would have been rendered meaningless.

In Al-Muwafqat, Allamah Shatibi has provided detailed proof that the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، the whole of it, is the explanation of the Book of Allah because the Qur’ an has said about the Holy Prophet وَإِنَّكَ لَعَلَىٰ خُلُقٍ عَظِيمٍ : ﷺ (And surely you are at the height of a sublime nature - 68:4) and which was explained by Sayyidah ` A'ishah ؓ by saying: کَانَ خُلُقُہُ القُرآن (The Qur'an was his sublime nature). Thus, the outcome is that every word and deed which provenly issued forth from the Holy Prophet is nothing but what was said by the Qur’ an. Some of these are the explanation of a verse of the Holy Qur’ an in express and obvious terms, while in some cases there appears no express mention about them in the Holy Qur’ an, but they are nonetheless based on some kind of revelation, though it was not made part of the Holy Qur'an. Thus, that too, in a certain way, comes under the operative purview of the Qur'an itself. This is because according to the clarification of the Qur’ an nothing that he says is prompted by his personal desire, instead of which, it is a Wahy (revelation) from Allah Ta’ ala: وَمَا يَنطِقُ عَنِ الْهَوَى إِنْ هُوَ إِلَّا وَحْيٌ يُوحَىٰ , (and nor does he talk from desire. It is nothing but a revelation revealed - 53:3-4). This tells us that all acts of worship, dealings with people, personal morals and habits of the Holy Prophet ﷺ were, all of them, through Divine revelation and have the same authority as that of the Qur’ an. Then, there are occasions when he has done something as based on his Ijtihad in which case it is ultimately - either through Divine revelation or through an absence of any restraining order - corrected and supported. Therefore, that too stands empowered with the authority of Wahy (revelation).

To sum up, it can be said that this verse has declared that the purpose for which the Holy Prophet ﷺ was sent is the explaining of the Qur'an. This purpose of his mission in this world has also been mentioned in several verses of Surah Al-Jumu` ah, and elsewhere too, where it has been referred to as the Ta` lim of Al-Kitab or Teaching of the Book. Now turn your attention to the great treasure of Hadith which one of the most talented and intellectually peerless people of our community, right from the Sababah and Tabi` in all the way to the Muhaddithin of the later period, have guarded more than their lives and delivered it to the Muslim Ummah as fait accompli. These were people who spent their whole lives sifting through this treasure and went on to establish the categories of Hadith narrations. As for narrations which they did not find matching enough in authority for the purpose of basing Islamic legal in-junctions on them, these they have separated from the treasure of Hadith. Instead, they have simply written standard books based exclusively on these narrations, which have proved correct and reliable after life-long criticisms and researches.

If today a person calls this treasure of Hadith unreliable under one or the other pretext or artifice, it plainly means that the Holy Prophet acted against this Qur’ anic injunction when he did not explain what the Qur’ an had said; or, that he had explained it but his explanation did not remain preserved for posterity. Under either of the two conditions, it is being suggested that the Qur’ an has not remained protected as to its meaning - the responsibility of protecting which has been undertaken by Allah Ta’ ala Himself: وَإِنَّا لَهُ لَحَافِظُونَ [ We, Ourselves, have sent down the Dhikr (the Qur'an) and We are there to protect it - 15:9]. This claim or inference of such a person is contrary to this textual authority (nass) of the Qur’ an. From here it stands proved that a person who refuses to accept the Sunnah of the Holy Prophet as a binding authority of Islam is, in reality, a denier of the Qur'an itself. Na ‘udhubillah: May Allah protect us from it.

‘The People of the Book’ (ahl az-zikr), i.e. those who have a knowledge of historical facts relating to past peoples and past prophets. What had to be ascertained from them was not about truth or untruth: they were to be asked about whether the prophets appearing in past ages were human beings or not. The fact that the Prophet Muhammad was a human being was treated by the people of Makkah as evidence of his not being the prophet of God. They were told to ascertain from the communities among whom prophets had been appearing (just as in the case of the Jews) whether the prophets who appeared among them were human beings or angels. A prophet appears for the purpose of ‘reminding’. This reminding is, in fact, done with the help of arguments. However, it is also necessary for the preacher to prove himself to be absolutely serious in this regard. If a man makes people aware of heaven and hell, but at the same time engages in such activities as prove him to be flippant about heaven and hell, his dawah efforts will become ridiculous in the eyes of the people. However, even if the call of the preacher is of a high standard and is presented in a perfect manner, it will benefit only those who pay attention to it. Those who do not pay attention can never be benefited by the call of truth