يَٰٓأَهْلَ ٱلْكِتَٰبِ قَدْ جَآءَكُمْ رَسُولُنَا يُبَيِّنُ لَكُمْ عَلَىٰ فَتْرَةٍ مِّنَ ٱلرُّسُلِ أَن تَقُولُوا۟ مَا جَآءَنَا مِنۢ بَشِيرٍ وَلَا نَذِيرٍ ۖ فَقَدْ جَآءَكُم بَشِيرٌ وَنَذِيرٌ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
5:16.
Important Words:
فترة (interval) is the noun-infinitive from فتر. They say فترالشیء i.e. the thing remitted or became allayed or abated or still after vehemence; or it became gentle after violence. They say فترعن عمله i.e. he flagged or became remiss or languid in his work. فترالحر means, the heat abated or flagged after being intense and vehement. فترة means, languor or remissness; weakness or feebleness; an interval of time between two things; an interval of time between two Prophets during which there is a cessation of prophetic revelation (Aqrab & Lane).
Commentary:
As generally believed, no Prophet appeared among Jews and Christians after Jesus. According to some historians, however, three Prophets did appear after Jesus, and according to Kalbi, Jesus was followed by four Prophets, one of them, Khalid bin Salam, appearing in Arabia. It was with regard to Khalid bin Salam that the Holy Prophet is reported to have said, "He was a Prophet to whose message his people paid no heed" (Muhit). Whatever the truth, the Holy Prophet was preceded by a period of فترة or cessation of Prophethood, no Prophet of God having appeared immediately before him.
The expression, lest you say, there has come to us no bearer of glad tidings and no warner, points to the important truth that God never visits a people with punishment unless He first sends a Messenger to them (17:16), because if punishment overtakes men without the appearance of a Messenger, they can justifiably say that they are being punished without being told what their offence is and without being given the opportunity to repent and mend their ways. In the present age too the world has been visited with calamities of diverse kinds on an extraordinary scale. A Messenger, therefore, must have come. He has indeed come in the fulness of the time in the person of Ahmad, the Holy Founder of the Ahmadiyya Movement.
5:16.
History is silent whether any Prophet had appeared in any country between the Holy Prophet and Jesus, at least not among the People of the Book. The world was, in fact, expecting and preparing for the advent of humanity’s greatest Deliverer. Some statements of doubtful authenticity (Kalbi) mention that Jesus was followed by some Prophets, Khalid bin Salam, being one of them. But the Holy Prophet himself is reported to have said that there was no Prophet between him and Jesus (Bukhari).