Al-An'am: (87) "And among their fathers and their descendants..."

"And among their fathers and their descendants and their brothers." It is possible, as has been said, that this relates to what was related to by [the word] "descendants" in the phrase "among his descendants," with "from" (min) indicating the beginning of a genus (ibtida'iyyah), and the object being omitted; meaning: We guided from among their fathers, their sons, and their brothers many groups. Or, it is conjoined to "all We favored," with "from" (min) being partitive (tab'idiyyah), meaning: We favored some of their fathers. Some have made it a conjunction to "Noah," with "from" functioning in the place of a direct object, interpreted as "some." The consideration of partitivity is due to the fact that among them were those who were neither prophets nor guided. It is said that this applies to those other than the fathers, because the fathers of all [the prophets] were guided monotheists. You know, however, that this is a matter of disagreement in view of the fathers of our Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and many people lean toward the denial [of that status for them]; so what, then, is your conjecture regarding the fathers of other prophets—peace be upon them? It is not hidden that the attribution of fathers, sons, and brothers to their pronoun does not necessitate that every one of them had a father, a son, or a brother; so do not be heedless.

"And We chose them" is a conjunction to "We favored them," meaning: We selected them. "And We guided them to a straight path" is a repetition for emphasis and a preamble to clarify what they were guided to. The secret was not disclosed regarding the mention of these great prophets—upon them from Allah, the Exalted, be the best of prayers and the most complete of peace—in this style, which includes placing the virtuous before the most virtuous, and the later in time before the earlier. The same applies to the secret behind the confirmation, first by His saying—the Exalted—"And thus do We reward," and second by His saying—Glory be to Him—"And all were of the righteous." And Allah, the Exalted, knows best the secrets of His speech.