رَّسُولًا

10:48; 13:8; 35:25.

7:31.

3:138; 6:12.

Commentary:

This verse supplies several answers to the objection of disbelievers mentioned in the previous verse. The first answer is that God had raised Prophets among different peoples at different times and every one of these Prophets had taught the Unity of God. If the contention of disbelievers that polytheism was permitted and countenanced by God had any basis in fact then one or other of these Prophets should have subscribed to this doctrine. But all the Prophets most vehemently denounced polytheism in every shape and form.

The second answer is implied in the words, We did raise among every people a Messenger, which mean that if God had chosen to employ force in the matter of faith, then there was no need for so many Prophets to come to convey to man the will of God. One Prophet would have sufficed through whom God would have guided to the right path those whom He desired. The long succession of Prophets who appeared among different peoples at different times to exhort them to live righteous lives constitutes a strong proof that man is created a free agent.

The third answer is contained in the injunction "shun the Evil One". If it were true that good and evil had been predetermined by God and man is only the victim of determinism, there is no sense in such an injunction, and in sending so many Prophets, for in that case every man’s course would have been predetermined. The fourth answer consists in the fact that at the appearance of every Prophet a certain number of people who before his advent are polytheists renounce their wrong doctrines and become believers in the Unity of God. In the event of man’s actions having been predetermined, he could not possibly effect a change in his beliefs or actions. The fact that on the occasion of the advent of every Prophet a certain number of disbelievers join the ranks of believers is positive proof of the fact that man has been endowed with freewill and that he is the master of his own destiny.

Divine visitations that have invariably overtaken disbelievers in all ages constitute yet another very cogent proof that man has been created free and is not the object or victim of a predetermined fate because there is no sense or justification in punishment overtaking a person who is not free to act as he likes.

Commentary:

The contemptuous tone of the disbelievers’ discourse is continued in this verse. They are represented as saying to the Prophet that if he could not accomplish any of the things they demanded of him, he might at least have some good things for himself. Pharaoh had challenged Moses that he could not be a true Prophet because he possessed no bracelets of gold (43:54); but the Meccan disbelievers went a step further and declared that the Prophet’s claims could only be regarded true if he possessed a house made of gold.

The words, Or thou ascend up into heaven…that we can read, contain a derisive reference to the Mi‘raj or the Ascension of the Prophet. The disbelievers meant to say that they would not believe in his ascension unless he stayed in the heavens and let fall to them a book that they might read. To these foolish demands of the disbelievers the words, Say, Holy is my Lord! I am not but a man sent as a Messenger, embody a crushing reply. They are told that their demands fall under two heads: (a) those that pertain to God; (b) those that pertain to the Prophet. The demands of the first category are frivolous in character and God is above such frivolities. These demands have nothing to do with the spiritual development of man for which Divine Messengers are raised. As for their demands pertaining to the Prophet, they are incompatible with his humanity and his mission as a Prophet of God. A human being, even one invested with prophethood, could not and would not indulge in such acrobatic feats.

17:60; 23:25; 34:44.

Commentary:

In the previous verse the Holy Prophet, in reply to the foolish and frivolous demands of disbelievers, was commanded to say to them that he was nothing beyond a Messenger of God. The present verse contains their strongest objection that he is only a mortal. In fact, the words, Has Allah sent a man as a Messenger, contain not one but several objections. The first is that, God being so great, it is incompatible with His dignity to appoint a mere mortal as His Messenger. This objection in reality implies rejection and denial of revelation itself. Some people reject a Prophet out of vanity and a false sense of self-importance. They do not deny the possibility of Divine revelation, but in their pride and egotism they cannot bring themselves to think that God could possibly choose a man of no consequence, as they think, to be the bearer of His Message. Another class of people hold that man, being endowed with great natural gifts and talents, is quite fit to find the right path by the help of these natural faculties alone and needs no Divine revelation to guide him. Yet a third class would object to any mortal being a Divine Prophet on the ground that a Prophet requires higher and better faculties for the effective discharge of his onerous duties than those possessed by a mere mortal. These people are ever ready to believe in the claims of any mountebank if only he professes to possess superhuman powers, but find it hard to believe in similar claims of another person possessed of the highest moral and spiritual stature who might be sincere enough to disclaim all such superhuman powers. This class of men fall an easy prey to supernaturalism. Persons who suffer from such mental distempers might well profess to believe in the past Prophets, but their failure to recognize the truth of a new claimant to Prophethood amply proves that the faith which they profess in the old Prophets is but an empty and customary faith inherited from their forefathers and is devoid of all reality.

23:25; 25:22; 43:61.

Commentary:

It is clear from this verse that what is here meant by "angels" are not real angels but angel-like men, because real angels certainly would not need other angels to come as Warners to them.

The verse constitutes an effective answer to those people who in their arrogance say that, being superior to their Prophet, they should have received revelation direct from God. They are told that angels descend upon angel-like men, and not upon their opposites and that if they bring about an angelic change in their lives, angels would begin to descend upon them.

But as they have allied themselves with Satan they could not expect visits from angels. The verse also provides an answer to another class of men who believe that man is too puny and inconsequential a being to be the recipient of Divine revelation and that higher beings are required for this purpose. The answer given is that only beings of the same species can help their prototypes achieve their salvation, because only they can serve as exemplars or models for them. Thus none but a man could be the bearer of a Divine Message for mankind, because only a man could serve as a model for other men. The word رسول (Messenger) here does not mean simply the bearer of Divinerevelation, but the possessor of all the attributes and qualifications of a Divine Messenger.

2:258; 5:17; 14:6.