Al-Hijr: (6-9) And they said, "O you upon whom the Reminder has been sent down..."

Know that when the Almighty intensified the warning to the disbelievers, He subsequently mentioned their doubts regarding the denial of his prophethood.

The first doubt: They used to accuse him of madness. There are several possibilities regarding this:

1. It is because, upon the revelation descending, the Prophet (peace be upon him) would exhibit a state resembling fainting. They thus assumed it was madness. The evidence for this is His saying: {And they say, "He is but a madman * And he is not but a reminder to the worlds"} (Al-Qalam: 51-52). Also, His saying: {Or have they not reflected? There is no madness in their companion} (Al-A'raf: 184).
2. They found it improbable that he was a true Messenger from God Almighty. When a person hears something improbable from another, he might say to him, "This is madness, and you are mad," because what he mentions deviates from the path of reason. The statement {Indeed, you are but a madman} in this verse can carry both meanings.

As for His saying: {And they said, "O you upon whom the Reminder has been sent down, indeed you are but a madman"}, there are two views:

1. They mentioned this as a form of mockery, just as Pharaoh said: {Indeed, your Messenger who has been sent to you is certainly mad} (Ash-Shu'ara: 27), and just as the people of Shu'ayb said: {Indeed, you are the forbearing, the rightly guided} (Hud: 87). Similarly, God Almighty said: {So give them tidings of a painful punishment} (Al 'Imran: 21), because giving tidings of punishment is contradictory (to the usual meaning of bashara).
2. The phrase {And they said, "O you upon whom the Reminder has been sent down"} means "in his claim and belief," and according to his companions and followers.

Then, God recounted their statement in establishing their doubt: {Why do you not bring us the angels, if you are of the truthful?}

In this, there are two issues:

The intended meaning is: If you were truthful in claiming prophethood, you would bring us angels to testify to your truthfulness in what you claim regarding the message. This is because if a wise sender intends to achieve a goal, and he has one path that certainly leads to that goal, and another path that might or might not lead to it and is subject to doubt and suspicion, the wise sender will pursue the certain path. Sending angels to confirm you and affirm your words is a path that certainly achieves this goal, whereas the path you propose for proving your prophethood is subject to doubt. Therefore, if you were truthful, the wisdom of God would necessitate sending angels to explicitly confirm you. Since you have not done so, we know you have no connection to prophethood. This establishes the basis of this doubt. A similar case is His saying in Surah Al-An'am: {And they say, "Why is a sign not sent down to him?"} (Al-An'am: 8).

There is another possibility: The Prophet (peace be upon him) used to warn them of the descent of punishment if they did not believe in him. So, the people demanded the punishment from him, saying: {Why do you not bring us the angels?} meaning, let the angels who descend to you descend upon us with that promised punishment. This is what is meant by His saying: {And they urge you to hasten the punishment. And if there were a specified term, the punishment would have come to them} (Al-'Ankabut: 53).

Then, the Almighty answered this doubt by saying: {We do not send down the angels except with the truth, and they would not have been given respite then}.

If the meaning of their saying {Why do you not bring us the angels?} was the first view (angels as witnesses), the establishment of the answer is that the descent of angels only occurs with truth and when there is benefit. God Almighty knew the state of these disbelievers: if He sent down the angels to them, they would remain insistent upon their disbelief. In this case, sending them would be futile and untrue, which is why God did not send them. The commentators said that the meaning of al-Haqq (the truth) here is death, or the punishment of complete annihilation. After their descent, there would be no respite or delay. Since we do not intend the punishment of annihilation for this Ummah, we have not sent down the angels for this reason.

However, if the meaning of their saying {Why do you not bring us the angels?} was their hastening of the punishment that the Messenger was warning them about, then the establishment of the answer is that angels only descend with the punishment of annihilation, and it is Our decree for the Ummah of Muhammad (peace be upon him) not to do that to them, but to grant them respite because We know that some among them will believe, and the offspring of those who remain will believe.

Al-Farra' and Al-Zajjaj said that Lawla and Lawma are two linguistic forms with the same meaning: "Why not?" They are used in declarative statements and in demands (interrogative/imperative). For a declarative statement, like your saying, "If it were not for you, I would have done so," and like His saying: {If it were not for you, we would have been believers} (Saba': 31). For a demand, like their saying: {Why is a sign not sent down to him?} (Al-An'am: 8) and this verse. Al-Farra' said that the Mīm in Lawma is a substitute for the Lām in Lawla. Similar to this is istawla (to take possession) and istawma (a variant form). Al-Asma'i narrated: khālaltuhu and khālamtuhu meaning "I befriended him," and khallī and khālmī meaning "my friend."

Regarding His saying: {We do not send down the angels except with the truth}, Hamzah, Al-Kisa'i, and Hafs from 'Asim recited: {mā nunazzilu} (We do not send down) with the Nūn and a Zay with a Kasrah and Shaddah, and al-malā'ikata (the angels) in the accusative case, because the sending down occurs upon them, and the Sender is God Almighty. Abu Bakr from 'Asim recited: {mā tunazzalu} (the angels are not sent down) in the passive voice, and al-malā'ikatu (the angels) in the nominative case. The rest recited: mā tanazzalu al-malā'ikatu (the angels do not descend), attributing the verb of descent to the angels. And God knows best.

Regarding His saying: {and they would not have been given respite then}, meaning: if the angels had descended, they would not have been given respite (yunẓarūn). This is because the obligation of accountability ceases upon the descent of the angels.

The author of Al-Nathm said: The word idhan is composed of two words: from idh, which is a noun equivalent to ḥīn (when). Do you not see that you say, "I came to you idh ja'tanī" (when you came to me)? Then an was added to it, making it idh an. They found the hamzah heavy, so they dropped it, resulting in idhan. The presence of the word idhan indicates an implied verb following it, meaning: "And they would not have been given respite idh kāna mā ṭalabū" (when what they requested occurred). This is a good interpretation.

Then the Almighty said: {Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will be its guardian}. In this, there are issues:

The people said: {And they said, "O you upon whom the Reminder has been sent down"} (Al-Hijr: 6) because they heard the Prophet (peace be upon him) saying, "God Almighty sent down the Reminder to me." Then, the Almighty confirmed his statement in this verse by saying: {Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will be its guardian}.

As for His saying: {Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder}, although this form is plural, it is from the speech of kings when expressing majesty. When one of them performs an action or says something, he says, "Indeed, We did such and such, and We said such and such." So it is here.

Regarding His saying: {for it} (lahu), to what does the pronoun refer? There are two opinions:

The First Opinion: It refers back to the Reminder (the Qur'an), meaning: And indeed, We guard that Reminder from alteration, addition, and omission. Similar to this is His saying about the Qur'an: {Falsehood cannot approach it from before it or from behind it} (Fussilat: 42), and {If it had been from other than Allah, they would have found within it much contradiction} (An-Nisa': 82).

If it is asked: Why did the Companions busy themselves with compiling the Qur'an into the Mus'haf if God Almighty promised to guard it? If God guards it, there is no fear for it.

The answer is: Their compilation of the Qur'an was among the means of God's guarding of it. When God decreed to guard it, He appointed them for that purpose. Our scholars said: In this verse is strong evidence for the Tasmiyah (the name of the Surah/Bismillah) being part of a verse from the beginning of every Surah. This is because God Almighty promised to guard the Qur'an, and guarding has no meaning except that it remains preserved from addition and omission. If the Tasmiyah were not part of the Qur'an, the Qur'an would not be preserved from alteration, nor would it be guarded from addition. If it were permissible to suspect the Companions of adding, it would also be permissible to suspect them of omission, which would lead to the Qur'an ceasing to be a proof.

The Second Opinion: The pronoun in {for it} refers back to Muhammad (peace be upon him), meaning: And indeed, We are the guardians of Muhammad. This is the view of Al-Farra'. Ibn Al-Anbari strengthened this view, saying: Since God mentioned the sending down and the thing sent down, this implies the one upon whom it was sent down, so referring back to him is appropriate because he is a known matter, just as in His saying: {Indeed, We sent it down on the Night of Decree} (Al-Qadr: 1). Here, the pronoun refers to the Qur'an, even though it was not mentioned previously; the reference is appropriate because the matter is known. Similarly here. However, the first opinion is the stronger and better of the two, aligning more closely with the apparent meaning of the revelation. And God knows best.

If we hold that the pronoun refers to the Qur'an, they differed on how God Almighty guards it. Some said: He guards it by making it miraculous and distinct from human speech, so creation is incapable of adding to it or omitting from it. If they added or omitted, the structure of the Qur'an would change, and it would become apparent to all rational people that this is not from the Qur'an. Thus, its miraculous nature acts like the surrounding of a city wall, protecting and guarding it. Others said: He preserved and guarded it so that no one among creation could challenge it. Others said: He rendered creation incapable of invalidating or corrupting it by appointing a group to memorize it, study it, and spread it among people until the end of accountability. Others said: The meaning of guarding is that if someone tried to change even a letter or a dot, the people of the world would tell him: "This is a lie and a change to the word of God." Even if a highly respected scholar made a grammatical error or a slip in a letter of God's Book, all the children would tell him: "You erred, O Shaykh, and the correct way is such and such." This is what is meant by {and indeed, We will be its guardian}.

Know that no other book has experienced such guarding. Every book has suffered from textual corruption, alteration, and change, whether extensively or slightly. The survival of this Book, preserved from all forms of alteration, despite the abundant efforts of atheists, Jews, and Christians to invalidate and corrupt it, is one of the greatest miracles. Furthermore, God Almighty informed about its survival, preserved from change and alteration. Nearly six hundred years have passed, so this was a prophecy about the unseen, which is also a conquering miracle.

The Judge used His saying: {Indeed, it is We who sent down the Reminder, and indeed, We will be its guardian} as evidence against the view of some of the Imamiyyah who hold that the Qur'an has suffered change, addition, and omission. He argued that if that were the case, the Qur'an would not remain guarded. This line of reasoning is weak because it is like proving a thing by itself. The Imamiyyah who say the Qur'an has suffered change, addition, and omission might claim that this very verse is among the additions appended to the Qur'an. Thus, proving this point using this verse is like proving the thing itself, which is invalid. And God knows best.

< {And certainly did We send messengers before you among the former nations. * And no messenger came to them except that they used to ridicule him. * Thus We let it enter the hearts of the criminals. * They do not believe in it, and the way of the former peoples has already passed.} >