Tafsir of Al-An'am 6:9

Al-An'am (The Cattle): Verse 9

{And if We had made him an angel...}

This means: If We had made him [the Messenger] in the form of a human being. The wisdom behind this [making him human] involves several matters:

1. Affinity: A species is more inclined toward its own kind.
2. Capacity: Humans cannot endure seeing an angel.
3. Stature of Angels: The obedience of angels is strong, so they might belittle the obedience of humans and perhaps not excuse them for daring to commit sins.
4. Divine Prerogative: Prophethood is a favor from God, which He bestows upon whomever He wills among His servants, whether they are angels or humans.

Then He said: {and We would have confused them in what they confuse.}

Al-Wahidi said: The phrase labastu al-amra 'ala al-qawm (I confused the matter for the people) means I made it ambiguous for them. Its origin is derived from covering with a garment (thawb), as the garment serves to conceal the self.

The meaning here is: If We had made the angel in the form of a human, they would assume that this angel was merely a human. Consequently, their objection would return: "We are not satisfied with the message of this person."

The precise meaning is that if God had done that, God's action would have mirrored their own act of deception (talbis). It would have been deception (talbis) because the people would assume he was a human when he was not. Their action (the disbelievers' claim) was deception because they told their people, "He is a human like you, and a human cannot be a messenger from God, the Exalted."

{And certainly were messengers mocked before you, so there befell those who mocked them that at which they used to mock.}