Ash-Shu'araa (The Poets)

197. “Is it not a sign to them that the learned of the Children of Israel know it (as true)?”

198. “And if We had sent it down to any of the non-Arabs,”

199. “And he had recited it to them, they would not have believed in it.”

The scholars of the Children of Israel were aware of the truthfulness of the Qur’an.

The excuse of being ignorant is not accepted from the faulty ones. Those Jews who did not ask their scholars to know the truth deserve to be blamed and rebuked.

Is not the knowledge of the scholars of the Children of Israel unto the glad tidings concerning the appointment of the Prophet of Islam (S) recorded in the ancient Divine Books as a reason for the veracity of his prophethood?

The verse says:

“Is it not a sign to them that the learned of the Children of Israel know it (as true)?”

Those scholars of the Children of Israel who had believed in the holy Qur’an informed that the Prophet’s name had been mentioned in their books, and the Jews and some Arab tribes had heard it from the learned ones of them and this very thing worked as their mean for ’Aus, and Khazraj to believe.

Ibn Abbas says that the objective of ‘the learned of the Children of Israel’ mentioned in the verse is ‘Abdillah-ibn-Salam and his companions, such as: Ibn-i-Yamin, Tha‘labah, ’Asad, ’Usayd and so on.

It is clear, of course, that it was not possible for the Qur’an to say such a great thing about itself in such an environment where there were so many scholars of the Children of Israel who were completely in association with pagans, because all of them could immediately deny it manifestly.

This itself shows that in the locality of the descent of the verses of the Qur’an, this issue was so clear and known that there was no room for any denial.

Surah Al-Baqarah, No. 2, verse 89 says:

“When there came to them a Book from Allah, confirming what was with them - and, from before, they had been praying for victory over those who rejected the truth - when there came to them that which they recognized (to be truth), they disbelieved in it.”

All of these facts are clear evidences to the veracity of the statement of the Qur’an and the rightfulness of its call.

Then, the next verse implies that if the Qur’an was sent down unto some one who was not Arab and he recited it to the Arabs, they would not believe in it and restrained to follow it, but Allah sent the Qur’an down in the clear Arabic language to the most eloquent one of them who was from the noblest family among them in order that they would ponder and confirm it and follow it better.

The verse says:

“And if We had sent it down to any of the non-Arabs,”

It was also formerly said that the Arabic word /‘arabi/ in context means ‘a person who is from the Arab generation’. Sometimes it means ‘eloquent speech’.

The Arabic word /‘ajami/ is in contrast with it and has two meanings: A) a non-Arab person, B) an ineloquent speech, and in the above mentioned verse both of them are probable, but it mostly seems that it refers to the first meaning.

This verse means that their racialism and tribal prejudice is so violent that if the Qur’an were sent down to a non-Arab, the waves of bigotries would hinder them to accept it.

Now that it has been sent down unto an honourable man from a noble family of Arabs in Arabic language and its glad tidings has also been mentioned in the former Divine Books and the learned ones of the Children of Israel have testified it, too, many of them did not believe; let alone if their prophet had not such conditions at all.

It was why in the next verse the Holy Qur’an says:

“And he had recited it to them, they would not have believed in it.”

A Tradition

Narrating from his father, Muhammad-ibn-Musa Ar-Razi said:

“One day Imam Rida (as) spoke about the Qur’an and he dignified the reason inside of it and stated about its wonderful order which is as a sign of miracle, and said:

‘The Qur’an is a firm rope of Allah, the strongest handle and the clear way of Allah which leads to the Paradise, and secures from the Fire, the past of time does not make it old and it is not tiresome for tongues, because it has not been appointed for a particular time but (in all times) it has been appointed as a reason and proof for all humankind.

‘Falsehood shall not come to it from before it nor from behind it; it is sent down from the Wise, the Praised One’1 .”2