Tafsir of Al-Furqan 25:7

"What is with this messenger" (ما لهذا الرسول): The lam (in li-hadha) is written in the Mushaf separated from hadha, which deviates from the standard conventions of Arabic orthography. The script of the Mushaf is a sunnah (tradition) that must not be altered.

Their phrasing expresses contempt and belittlement of his status. Calling him "the messenger" was a form of mockery and sarcasm on their part, as if they were saying: "What is with this man who claims to be a messenger?" This is similar to the statement of Pharaoh: "Indeed, your messenger who has been sent to you is mad" (Ash-Shu'ara: 27).

"Who eats food and walks in the markets": They meant: "If it is true that he is a messenger of God, why is his condition like ours? He eats food as we eat, and he walks in the markets to seek a livelihood as we do." They believed he should have been an angel, independent of the need to eat or earn a living.

Their descending demands:

1. They first demanded he be an angel.
2. Then they lowered their demand to him being a human accompanied by an angel to support him in warning and intimidating.
3. Then they lowered it further, saying: "If he is not supported by an angel, let him be supported by a treasure cast down to him from the sky, so he may rely upon it and not need to seek a livelihood."
4. Then they lowered it again, settling for him being a man who owns a garden from which he eats and gains sustenance, like the wealthy landowners, or that they themselves might eat from that garden and benefit from it in their worldly lives.

"And the wrongdoers say": He intended by "the wrongdoers" those specific individuals. He used the noun (the wrongdoers) in place of the pronoun (they) to record their injustice regarding what they said.

Grammatical notes on "so he may have" (فيكون): It is recited in the nominative (fayakunu) and the accusative (fayakuna).

• The Accusative: It is the response to lawla (meaning "why not"), and its rule is the rule of an interrogative.
• The Nominative: It is conjoined to unzila (was sent down), which is in the nominative position. Do you not see that you say lawla yunzal (in the nominative)? Yulqa (is cast) and takunu (he may be) are also conjoined to it and are both nominative. The accusative is not permissible for them because they are in the position of what occurs after lawla, which can only be nominative.

The speakers: They are the disbelievers of Quraysh: An-Nadr ibn al-Harith, Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah, Nawfal ibn Khuwaylid, and those who joined them.

"Bewitched" (مسحورا): Either he has been bewitched, such that his intellect has been overcome, or he possesses sihr (the lung). They meant that he is a human, not an angel.