{And Muhammad is not but a messenger. [Other] messengers have passed on before him.}

It is reported that when the two factions met on the day of Uhud and the war grew intense, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: "Who will take this sword by its right and strike the enemy with it until it bends?" Abu Dujanah Sammak bin Kharashah al-Ansari took it. He then wrapped a red turban around his head, began to strut, and said:

I am the one whom my beloved promised While we were at the valley near the palm trees That I shall never stand in shackles I strike with the sword of Allah and the Messenger.

The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: "It is indeed a gait that Allah and His Messenger hate, except in this situation." He began to kill everyone he encountered. Ali (may Allah honor his face) fought a fierce battle until his sword bent. Allah Almighty sent victory upon the Muslims, and the polytheists turned their backs. When the archers saw that the people had been routed and the Muslims were collecting spoils, they violated the command of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), except for a few of them, and headed toward the camp. When Khalid bin al-Walid saw the scarcity of the archers and that the people were occupied with the spoils, and saw their backs were exposed, he shouted to his cavalry among the polytheists and attacked the companions of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) from behind with two hundred and fifty horsemen. They dispersed them and killed about thirty men. Abdullah bin Qami'ah al-Harithi threw a stone at the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), breaking his incisor and wounding his noble face. He approached intending to kill him, but Mus'ab bin Umayr, the standard-bearer (may Allah be pleased with him), defended him until he was killed by Ibn Qami'ah.

It is said that the thrower was Utbah bin Abi Waqqas. He returned believing that he had killed the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and said, "I have killed Muhammad." A caller cried out—it is not known who he was, until it was said that it was Iblis—"Behold, Muhammad has been killed!" People turned away, and the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) began to call, "Come to me, O servants of Allah!" Thirty men gathered around him and protected him until they repelled the polytheists from him. Sa'd bin Abi Waqqas shot until the string of his bow snapped, and the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) kept handing him his quiver, saying, "Shoot, may my father and mother be sacrificed for you!" Talhah bin Ubaydullah's hand was struck and withered, and Qatadah's eye was struck until it fell onto his cheek; the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) replaced it, and it became better than it had been before.

When the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) departed, Ubayy bin Khalaf al-Jumahi caught up with him, saying, "You shall not survive if I survive!" The people said, "O Messenger of Allah, should one of us not deal with him?" He said, "Let him be." When he drew near, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) took a spear from al-Harith bin al-Simmah and met him, stabbing him in the neck, grazing him slightly. He tumbled from his horse, bellowing as a bull bellows, saying, "Muhammad has killed me!" Ubayy used to meet the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) before that and say, "I have a mare that I feed every day a measure of corn to kill you on." The Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) would say to him, "Rather, I will kill you, if Allah Almighty wills." His companions carried him and said, "There is nothing wrong with you." He replied, "Indeed! If this wound were upon Rabi'ah and Mudar, it would have killed them. Did he not say to me, 'I will kill you'? If he had spat on me after that statement, he would have killed me." He did not last more than a day before he died at a place called Sarif.

When it spread among the people that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) had been killed, some Muslims said, "If only we had a messenger to Abdullah bin Ubayy so he could get us safety from Abu Sufyan." Others sat down and gave up. Some people of hypocrisy said, "If Muhammad has been killed, return to your former religion." Anas bin al-Nadr, the uncle of Anas bin Malik, said, "If Muhammad has been killed, then the Lord of Muhammad has not been killed! What will you do with life after the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)? Fight for what he fought for, and die for what he died for!" Then he said, "O Allah, I apologize to You for what these—meaning the Muslims—have said, and I dissociate myself from what these—meaning the hypocrites—have said." He then charged with his sword and fought until he was killed (may Allah be pleased with him).

It is reported that the first to recognize the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was Ka'b bin Malik. He said, "I recognized his eyes beneath the visor, shining. I cried out at the top of my voice: 'O company of Muslims, rejoice! This is the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)!' He signaled to me to be silent." A group of his companions (may Allah be pleased with them) joined him. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) reproached them for fleeing, and they said, "O Messenger of Allah, may our fathers and sons be sacrificed for you! News reached us that you had been killed, so our hearts were filled with terror and we turned back in retreat." Then Allah Almighty sent down this verse.

"Muhammad" is a proper noun for our Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), transferred from the passive participle of hamd (praise), doubled in the language. His grandfather, Abdul-Muttalib, named him this on the seventh day of his birth, due to his father's death before it. When asked about that, he said due to a vision he had: "I hoped he would be praised in heaven and on earth." Its meaning before the transfer is "he who is praised much," and its opposite is al-mudhammam (the dispraised). It is mentioned in a report that he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: "Do you not see how Allah Almighty diverted the cursing and insulting of Quraysh from me? They insult mudhammam, while I am Muhammad."

This noble name contains countless secrets, to the point that it is said it points to the number of the prophets, just as it points to the messengers among them (upon them be peace and prayer). He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is referred to here by this name because it is the first of his names and the most famous of them, and it was the name with which the caller cried out. It is in the nominative case as an ibtida' (subject), and its predicate is what follows illa. It does not govern the following phrase by consensus, because its negation is nullified by illa.

They differed on the type of restriction (qasr): is it a restriction of reversal (qalb) or a restriction of specification (ifrad)? The scholar al-Tayyibi and a group went to the view that it is a restriction of reversal, because the addressees, due to the retreat they engaged in upon the rumor of the Prophet's (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) death, were made as if they believed that the status of Muhammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was not like the status of the preceding messengers regarding the obligation to follow their religion after their death, but rather that his status was contrary to theirs. Allah Almighty denied this for them and clarified that the status of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is the status of the prophets who preceded him (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon them all) in that they died and their followers remained attached to their religion, steadfast upon it. Thus, the sentence "{[Other] messengers have passed on before him}" is an adjective for "messenger," revealing that he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is in a state of having been preceded; for the passing of his peers in the station of messengership is evidence of his inevitable passing. It is as if it were said: "His likes have passed on before him, so he will pass on just as they passed on." The restriction is applied to this attribute. It is not an objection that a restriction of reversal would necessitate that the addressees were deniers of the messengership, as that arises from distraction from the attribute. It is also said that the sentence is in the position of a circumstantial qualifier (hal) for the pronoun in "messenger."

The author of al-Miftah held that it is a restriction of specification, casting the speech contrary to the requirement of the apparent (muqtada al-zahir) by treating their estimation of his (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) non-survival as equivalent to their deeming it impossible and denying it, such that they believed two attributes in him: messengership and distance from destruction. Thus, it restricted him to messengership, negating the distance from destruction. This was countered by the fact that it necessitates treating the sentence "{[Other] messengers have passed on before him}" as an initiating sentence (mustan'ifah) to explain that he (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) is not exempt from lack of survival like other messengers, since, on the consideration of the attribute, it would only be a restriction of reversal. The assumption that the sentence is initiating is remote, as it violates the rule regarding sentences after indefinite nouns. It was answered that this is not necessary, as it is permissible for it to be an adjective also, confirming the meaning of the restriction and following it in estimation. Ibn Abbas read rusul as an indefinite noun.

"{So if he died or were killed, would you turn back on your heels?}" The hamza is for denial, and the fa is either initiating or for mere sequence. Turning back on one's heels in the origin is retreating backward; it is meant here as apostasy and returning to the disbelief they were previously upon in the famous view. The purpose is to deny their apostasy from the religion due to his (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) passing by death or killing after they knew of the passing of the messengers before him and the fact that their religion remained adhered to. It is problematic that the people did not apostatize, so how was "turning back on one's heels" used when that is what it implies? It was answered that it does not mean actual apostasy; rather, it is a harsh reproach for their flight and exposure of the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and leaving him to destruction. It is said the denial here means that such a thing did not happen and should not happen, not a denial of what occurred. Others said it is an informing of what happened to the apostates after his (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) death, and an allusion to the defeat that occurred as it resembles it.

Some took "turning back" here to mean a decrease in faith, not subsequent disbelief, citing what Ibn al-Mundhir extracted from al-Zuhri, who said: When this verse was revealed, "{...that they may increase in faith along with their [present] faith}," they said, "O Messenger of Allah, we know that faith increases, but does it decrease?" He said, "Yes, by Him who sent me with the truth, it decreases." They said, "Is there evidence for that in the Book of Allah Almighty?" He said, "Yes." Then the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) recited, "{So if he died or were killed, would you turn back on your heels?}" Turning back is a decrease, not disbelief. It is not hidden that this report is not of such strength that it could be used as evidence, and I do not find in it the freshness of authentic hadiths.

Some went to the view that the fa connects the conditional sentence to the sentence before it in terms of causality, and the hamza is for denying that. Meaning: "You should not make the passing of messengers before him a reason for your turning back on your heels after his death or killing; rather, make it a reason for adhering to his religion, as is the rule for all other prophets (peace be upon them)." Your turning back on your heels is a reversal of the requirement of the established premise, which is that he is a messenger who passes on just as messengers passed on. The introduction of death with the word in (if), despite certain knowledge, is to treat the addressees as those who are hesitant due to the aforementioned estimation they held. The Master said: "This is the situation in all other instances; the word in in the speech of Allah Almighty does not follow its apparent meaning at all, necessarily due to His Almighty knowledge of the occurrence or non-occurrence; rather, it is taken based on the condition of the listener or another matter that fits the context." The meaning of death is death on a bed, and by killing is death through destruction of the physical structure. The estimation of death was placed first, even though the estimation of killing is what nearly caused the "red death," because death was on the verge of occurring, so warning the people against turning back at that point and urging them to remain firm was more important. Also, because the common attribute in reality between him (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) and the messengers (peace be upon them) is death, not killing, contrary to those who claimed otherwise, citing what was reported regarding the food of Khaybar, although killing and death occurred among them. Killing was mentioned despite His Almighty knowledge that he would not be killed, to allow for the addressees' possibility of it. The verse, "{And Allah will protect you from the people}"—on the assumption that it was revealed before Uhud—might not have reached these defeated ones, and even if it had reached them, the possibility that they would not remember it in such a terrifying situation remains. Umar (may Allah be pleased with him) was unmindful of this verse on the day the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) passed away.

Abu Hurairah reported that on that day, he (Umar) stood up and said, "Indeed, some hypocrites claim that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) has died, but the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), by Allah, has not died. Rather, he has gone to his Lord as Musa bin Imran went, for he was absent from his people for forty nights then returned to them after it was said, 'He has died.' By Allah, the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) will surely return as Musa returned, and he shall cut off the hands and feet of men who claimed that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) has died." Abu Bakr came out and said, "Be calm, O Umar! Listen." He praised and glorified Allah Almighty and said, "O people, whoever worshiped Muhammad, Muhammad has died; and whoever worships Allah Almighty, Allah Almighty is Living and does not die." Then he recited this verse, "{And Muhammad is not but a messenger...}" to its end. By Allah, it was as if the people did not know that this verse had been revealed until Abu Bakr recited it that day. The people took it from Abu Bakr. Umar said, "By Allah, as soon as I heard Abu Bakr recite it, I was paralyzed until I fell to the ground; my legs could not carry me. I knew then that the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) had died." The apology that understanding the verse of protection was exclusive to the scholars among the Companions and those of insight, despite the clarity of the wording, as al-Zamakhshari apologized, has its obvious issues. The suggestion that it meant protection from the trials and misguidance of people is also obviously far-fetched, because such a thing is not expected of the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace); such things are only mentioned in the context of incitement and allusion.

"{And he who turns back on his heels will never harm Allah at all.}" By what he does of turning back, because it is not permissible for harm to befall Him Almighty. "{at all}"—meaning any harm, even if slight. He only harms himself by exposing it to wrath and punishment, or by depriving it of additional reward. This is pointed to by the negation being directed toward the object, for it implies that he harms other than Allah Almighty, and there is none but himself. "{And Allah will reward the grateful.}" Meaning: He will recompense those who remain steadfast in the religion of Islam. He placed "the grateful" in the position of "the steadfast" because steadfastness arises from the certainty of its truth, and that is gratitude for it. It contains an allusion to the ingratitude of those who turned back. Ali (may Allah honor his face) held that "the grateful" means "the steadfast," and Ibn Jarir reported this from him. He used to say, "The steadfast are Abu Bakr and his companions, and Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) is the prince of the grateful." From Ibn Abbas: they are those who are obedient among the Muhajirun and the Ansar. The mention of the Majestic Name in place of the pronoun is to proclaim the importance of the matter of their reward. The connection of this to what preceded it is the connection of a promise to a threat.