Continuation of the explanation of the words of Allah the Exalted: “And when We took a covenant from the prophets, and from you, and from Noah, and from Abraham, and from Moses, and from Jesus, the son of Mary, and We took from them a solemn covenant”

He said: Then He said: severe in the fulfillment of what they were entrusted with, which is the oath by Allah, Glorified and Exalted is He. This is the explanation of the solemn covenant. Is this covenant the first one or another? The exegetes differed on this. Some said that it is the first covenant, and it was repeated only for the description, which is His saying: May Allah reward you And others said that it is not the first, because the rule is that when a name is repeated, if it is in the form of a definite noun, the second is usually the first, and if it is in the form of an indefinite noun, the second is usually not the first. This is the general rule, but not always. You see His saying, the Exalted: [al-Rahman: 60] came with the definite article, and the second excellence is certainly not the first excellence. But yes, the majority of the time, when a name is repeated in the indefinite form, it becomes other than the first, and when it is repeated in the definite form, it becomes the first. Here, the covenant was repeated in the indefinite form. He said: so the second covenant is other than the first covenant. What is the point of difference? He says that the first covenant is the covenant taken from all the children of Adam, and the second covenant is the specific covenant with the messengers regarding what they were entrusted with, which is the performance of the worship of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, the conveying of His Shari'ah, and the calling to it. As for if we say that the second covenant is the first, then the benefit of its repetition is its description with severity, meaning that it is a severe covenant, more severe than the covenant taken from others.