Tafsir of Al-Anbiya' 21:7

"And We did not send before you except men..."

His saying—Exalted and Majestic is He—is a response to their claim that a messenger cannot be anything but an angel. This is alluded to by their statement: "He is but a human being like yourselves," upon which they based all that they built. It is connected to that and placed before the response to their demand, "Let him bring us [a sign]," because they said that by way of defiance; thus, it was necessary to hasten to refute and invalidate it. Furthermore, this response contains a degree of elaboration that, if placed earlier, would have disrupted the harmonious flow of the noble arrangement.

His saying—Exalted is He—"We reveal to them" is an explanatory commencement concerning the manner of sending. The present tense form is used to recount the past state as if it were continuous. The object is omitted because there is no intent to specify it. The meaning is: We did not send to the nations before sending you to your nation except men—not angels—to whom We reveal, through the intermediary of the angel, that which We reveal of laws, rulings, and other stories and reports, just as We reveal to you. There is no difference between you and them in the reality of revelation or the truth of its content, just as there is no difference between you and them regarding humanity. So what is the matter with them that they do not understand that you are not an innovation among the messengers, and that what is revealed to you is not contrary to what was revealed to them, that they should say what they say? Some eminent scholars have said that the sentence [‘nuhi ilayhim’] is in the position of the accusative, acting as a laudatory description for ‘men,’ and this is what the sublime arrangement requires. The majority recited it as "yuha ilayhim" (it is revealed to them) in the passive voice, following the custom of Divine Majesty and signaling the certainty of the Agent.

His saying—Exalted is He—"So ask the people of the Reminder if you do not know":

This is a change in the address, directing it toward the disbelievers to rebuke them and bring them down from their rank of stubbornness and denial, following the establishment of the truth. It follows the method of addressing the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), for he is the one worthy of being addressed with such elegant truths; as for arriving at them by asking others, that is the task of the common folk. His—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—being commanded to ask in some verses is not for the sake of attaining knowledge of what is asked about, but for another purpose.

The ‘fa’ (so) is for ordering what follows it upon what precedes it. The origin of "the people of the Reminder" is the People of the Book, as narrated from al-Hasan, Qatadah, and others. The response to the conditional clause is omitted, relying on the indication provided by what is mentioned; that is, "If you, O ignorant ones, do not know what has been mentioned, then ask the People of the Book who are aware of the circumstances of the past messengers—peace be upon them—so that your doubt may be dispelled." They were commanded to do this because the reports of a large multitude provide knowledge in such matters, especially since they were supporters of the polytheists in their enmity toward him—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and they consulted them regarding his affair. Thus, in this lies an indication of the complete clarity of the matter and the strength of the station of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) that is not hidden.

It is reported from Ibn Zayd that the "people of the Reminder" are the people of the Quran, but Ibn ‘Atiyyah rejected this on the grounds that they [the People of the Book] were their adversaries, so how could they be commanded to ask them? This also refutes what the Imami sect claimed, that they are the family of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and the discussion regarding that has already preceded.