| An-Nahl (The Bees): (89) And the Day We raise up...

If this is established, we say: There are two opinions regarding the verse:

1. The first is that what is meant is that every Prophet is a witness over his nation.
2. The second is that every generation or epoch that occurs in the world must necessarily have one among them who will be a witness over them.

As for the witness over those who were in the era of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), it is the Messenger himself, based on the evidence of His saying, the Exalted: {And thus We have made you a just community (Ummah Wasatan) that you may be witnesses over mankind and the Messenger a witness over you} (Al-Baqarah: 143). It is also established that there must be a witness over the people in every era after the era of the Messenger. This leads to the conclusion that no era is devoid of a witness over the people, and that witness must be infallible (incapable of error). Otherwise, that witness would require another witness, and this would extend indefinitely, which is false. Therefore, it is established that in every era, there must be people whose statements establish the proof (Hujjah). This necessitates that the consensus of the Ummah (Ijmā' al-Ummah) is a proof.

Abu Bakr al-Aṣamm said: What is meant by this witness is that Allah, the Exalted, causes ten parts of a person's body to speak, so that they testify against him: the two ears, the two eyes, the two feet, the two hands, the skin, and the tongue. He said: The evidence for this is that He described the witness as being "from themselves" (min anfusihim), and these limbs are undoubtedly from themselves.

The Judge (al-Qāḍī) responded to this from several perspectives:

1. First: Allah, the Exalted, said: {a witness over them} (shahīdan 'alayhim), meaning over the Ummah, so the witness must be someone other than those limbs.
2. Second: He said: {from every nation} (min kulli ummah), so that witness must be from the Ummah. The individual limbs cannot correctly be described as being "from the Ummah."
3. As for interpreting these witnesses as the Prophets, it is far-fetched, because their being Prophets sent to creation is a matter known by necessity, so there is no benefit in interpreting this verse to mean that.

Then He, the Exalted, said: {And We have sent down to you the Book, a clarification of everything}. In this, there are several issues:

The connection is that when Allah said: {And We have brought you as a witness over these}, He clarified that He has removed any excuse for them regarding what they were commanded with, so they have no argument or excuse.

Some people have said that the Qur'an is a clarification of everything because knowledge is either religious or non-religious. As for knowledge that is not religious, it has no connection to this verse, because it is known by necessity that Allah, the Exalted, only praised the Qur'an for containing the sciences of religion. As for what is not part of the sciences of religion, it is disregarded.

As for the sciences of religion, they are either Uṣūl (principles) or Furū' (branches). The science of Uṣūl is entirely present in the Qur'an. As for the science of Furū', the default is the acquittal of responsibility (bara'at al-dhimmah) except for what is mentioned in detail in this Book. This indicates that there is no obligation from Allah, the Exalted, except what is mentioned in this Qur'an. If this is the case, then the assertion of Qiyās (analogy) is void, and the Qur'an is sufficient in clarifying all rulings.

As for the jurists (Fuqahā'), they said that the Qur'an is a clarification of everything because it indicates that Ijmā' (consensus), the report of a single trustworthy narrator (khabar al-āḥād), and Qiyās are all proofs. If a ruling is established by one of these sources, that ruling is established by the Qur'an. This issue has already been discussed exhaustively in Sūrat al-A'rāf. And Allah knows best.

Al-Wāḥidī narrated with his chain from Al-Zajjāj that he said: Tibyānan (clarification) is in the meaning of the noun Bayān (clarification), similar to Tilqā’an. Tha'lab narrated from the Kufans, and Al-Mubarrid from the Basrans, that they said: Only two nouns have come from the pattern Taf'al (with an initial tā'): Tibyānan and Tilqā’. If you omit these two words, the analogy becomes regular for you, so you would say for every noun of the pattern Taf'āl (with an open tā'), like Tisyār (making something move) and Tidhkar (remembrance), and you would say for every noun of the pattern Tif'āl (with a closed tā'), like Tiqṣār and Timthāl.

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