إِنَّكَ لَمِنَ المُرسَلينَ
You are indeed one of the apostles.
EXEGESIS
This verse is the subject of the oath (jawāb al-qasam).
Mursalīn (apostles or messengers). There are a few prophets in the Quran whom God has addressed with this title, which indicates that this is a mission given to different individuals at different times in different communities.
The sentence is strongly emphasised by the emphatic word inna (indeed) before the subject ka (you) and the emphatic letter la before the predicate min.
EXPOSITION
It is evident that this verse is a response to those who rejected the apostleship of the Holy Prophet and made accusations against him. Despite repeated claims of Muhammad (s) to be a messenger of God, the Meccans waged wars on him and tortured and killed his companions and loved ones. They belied, humiliated, and insulted him by calling him names such as insane (15:6, 68:51), insane poet (37:36), insolent liar (54:25), magician (37:15), soothsayer (52:29), and under a spell or bewitched (25:8).
As mentioned earlier, taking an oath by the Quran to prove the status of the Prophet may seem tautological; however, it draws the attention of the deniers to the content and the style of the Quran, which could not be the fabrication of a poet, a sorcerer, or the like. In several places, the Quran invites the wisest among its addressees to produce something like it or one of its chapters: Do they say: ‘He has fabricated it’? Say: ‘Then bring ten surahs like it, fabricated, and invoke whomever you can, besides Allah, should you be truthful’ (11:13); And if you are in doubt concerning what We have sent down to Our servant, then bring a surah like it, and invoke your helpers besides Allah, should you be truthful (2:23).
If someone wants to find out whether the Prophet was truthful or not, they do not need to look for miracles; miracles are just for one time, they can only persuade the people who see them, and others who come after them may regard them as legends, or as myths of past, mentally undeveloped people. The best proof, however, is to go to the Quran and see for yourself that this man was a messenger. Thus, the Quran is the best proof of Prophet Muhammad’s (s) apostleship by which God takes an oath.
INSIGHTS FROM HADITH
- Imam Ali (a) said: ‘Since, in the course of time, many people perverted Allah’s trust and ignored His position and took compeers along with Him, and Satan turned them away from knowing Him and kept them aloof from His worship, Allah sent His messengers and a series of His prophets. They were sent to require the fulfilment of the pledge inherent in their creation, to recall to them His bounties, to exhort them by preaching, to unveil before them the hidden virtues of wisdom, and to show them the signs of His omnipotence, namely the sky which is raised over them, the earth that is placed beneath them, the means of living that sustain them, deaths that make them die, ailments that turn them old, and incidents that successively betake them. Allah never allowed His creation to remain without a prophet deputised by Him, a book sent down from Him, a binding argument, or a standing plea. These messengers were such that they did not feel little because of the smallness of their number or the largeness of the number of their falsifiers. Among them was either a predecessor who would name the one to follow or the follower whom the predecessor had introduced. In this way, ages passed by, and times rolled on, and fathers passed away while sons took their places till Allah deputised Muhammad (s) as His Prophet, fulfilling His promise and completing the chain of the prophets.’
REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE
If people reject the apostleship of Prophet Muhammad (s) then the testimony of God and the one who possesses the knowledge of the book should be sufficient, as in 13:43: The faithless say: ‘You have not been sent [by Allah].’ Say: ‘Allah suffices as a witness between me and you, and he who possesses the knowledge of the book.’ The affirmation of the apostleship to the Holy Prophet does not mean that he himself doubts his prophecy; however, it is for the people surrounding him by communicating with him.
God further uses the word wise to describe the Quran, by which He swears, to indicate that the message is nothing but based on complete wisdom.
INSIGHTS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
- For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
- I will raise for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I commanded him. I, myself, will call to account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.’
[1] Nahj, sermon 1.
[2] Muhammad Asad, The Message of The Quran, < http://www.muhammad-asad.com/Message-of-Quran.pdf >, p. 911.
[3] The Iglesia Ni Cristo, The Messengers of God, < https://incmedia.org/our-beliefs/the-messengers-of-god/ >.
[4] Deuteronomy 18:18-19.