And you were not a resident
وما كنت ثاويا
residing
among the people of Madyan
في أهل مدين
The intended meaning of the people of Madyan is the people to whom Moses (peace be upon him) came, and with whom occurred what was mentioned of his being hired, his marriage, and his journey with his family. So, was the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) residing among the people of Madyan such that he would report what happened with them? The answer is: No. Therefore, what he brought of news regarding the people of Madyan is through the path of revelation.
And His saying:
among the people of Madyan, reciting to them Our verses
في أهل مدين تتلو عليهم آياتنا
is a second predicate. Where is the second predicate? The word is a sentence.
reciting to them
تتلو عليهم
Meaning: And you were not reciting to them Our verses, so that you would know their story and report it. And His saying:
upon them
عليهم
The pronoun is apparent in the author's speech, and it is also apparent in the context of the verse that it refers to the people of Madyan.
reciting to them Our verses
تتلو عليهم آياتنا
So you would know their story and report it. Some scholars, some of the exegetes, said: The pronoun refers to Quraysh, meaning you were not residing among the people of Madyan so that you would recite to them the story that We narrated in Our verses. This is closer to the meaning, even though the first is closer to the wording, because the pronoun refers to the nearest mentioned, but it does not refer to the people of Madyan except with severe distortion. So the correct view is that it refers to Quraysh, meaning you were not residing among the people of Madyan so that you would recite to them the story that came in Our verses. So you are a Messenger, because you came with what you were not a witness to.
reciting to them Our verses
تتلو عليهم آياتنا
For this reason He said:
But We were sending
ولكنا كنا مرسلين
to you and to you with the news of those who came before. But We were sending to you and to you, sending to you to the people and to you through revelation. So the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is sent to the people and sent to. And His saying:
But We were sending
ولكنا كنا مرسلين
Was
كان
is a past tense verb, and it is stripped of time, and the intended meaning is that its subject is described by its predicate. And His saying:
But We
ولكنا
This
Narrated to us
نا
is for the group, and
We used to
كنا
is for the group, and
sending
مرسلين
is plural, even though Allah the Exalted is One, the Unique. But why is that?
The student: For magnification.
The Shaykh : For magnification, because
Narrated to us
نا
is for the speaker who magnifies himself, or for the speaker with another with him. And it is next to Allah, without doubt, for the speaker who magnifies himself. And His saying:
But We were sending
ولكنا كنا مرسلين
And He did not say: But We sent him. As He said in the verse before it:
But We created generations
ولكنا أنشأنا قروناً
Because the message has continued in creation since they differed until the last of the messengers, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). And when did they differ? They differed after Adam, after centuries had passed, either ten or less or more. The people differed. Allah the Exalted said:
Mankind was [of] one religion [before their deviation]; then Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and warners and sent down with them the Scripture in truth to judge between the people concerning that in which they differed.
كَانَ النَّاسُ أُمَّةً وَاحِدَةً فَبَعَثَ اللَّهُ النَّبِيِّينَ مُبَشِّرِينَ وَمُنذِرِينَ وَأَنزَلَ مَعَهُمُ الْكِتَابَ بِالْحَقِّ لِيَحْكُمَ بَيْنَ النَّاسِ فِيمَا اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ
[al-Baqarah: 213] So the verse says:
So Allah sent down.
The student: His saying, the Exalted:
And they did not differ except after knowledge had come to them
وما اختلفوا إلا من بعد ما جاءهم العلم
...
The Shaykh : through revelation, but the intended meaning of this is the difference of the Children of Israel.
Except after knowledge had come to them
إلا من بعد ما جاءهم العلم
This is for the Children of Israel. As for the first,
Mankind was [of] one religion [before their deviation]; then Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good
كان الناس أمة واحدة فبعث الله النبيين مبشرين
and in it is a reading, but it is not one of the seven canonical readings.
So they differed, and Allah sent [the messengers].
فاختلفوا فبعث الله
And this reading is indicated by His saying:
To judge among the people in that in which they differed.
لِيحكم بين الناس فيما اختلفوا فيه
And We were messengers.
ولكنا كنا مرسلين
to you and to you with the news of those who came before." The benefit of mentioning the news of those who came before to the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) so that he would recite it to us is the confirmation that he is a Prophet, because he was not reciting from any book before, nor writing it with his right hand. So what he reported about those who preceded him is from the category of pure revelation.
Allah the Exalted said:
