Tafsir of Az-Zukhruf 43:30

"And when the truth came to them..."

If you ask: The arrival of the Truth and the Messenger was made the limit of their enjoyment (tamattu‘), and then it was followed by His saying: "And when the truth came to them, they said, 'This is magic.'" What is the method of this arrangement and its implication?

I say: The intended meaning of "enjoyment" is that which caused it—namely, their preoccupation with worldly pleasure to the exclusion of monotheism and its requirements. He is saying: They remained preoccupied away from monotheism until the Truth and a clear Messenger came to them. This limit suggests that they should have awakened from their heedlessness at that point, as the arrival of the Truth demands such awakening.

Then, He begins their story at the moment the Truth arrived, saying: "And when the truth came to them," they responded with something worse than the heedlessness they were previously in. They added to their polytheism:

• Obstinacy against the Truth.
• Arrogance toward the Messenger and hostility toward him.
• Belittling the Book of Allah and His laws.
• Persistence in the deeds of the disbelievers.
• Passing judgment on Allah’s wisdom regarding His choice of Muhammad (peace be upon him) from among the people of his time, by saying: "Why was this Qur'an not sent down upon a great man from the two cities?" This is the ultimate distortion of their state.

It is recited as rajul (with a quiescent jim) from al-qaryatayn (the two cities), meaning: from one of the two cities, similar to the Almighty’s saying: "From both of them emerge pearl and coral" (Ar-Rahman: 22), meaning from one of them. The two cities are Makkah and Ta'if.

It is also said to mean: "from one of the two great men of the two cities." According to Ibn Abbas, these were Al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah al-Makhzumi and Habib ibn ‘Amr ibn ‘Umayr ath-Thaqafi. Mujahid said: ‘Utbah ibn Rabi‘ah and Kinanah ibn ‘Abd Yalil. Qatadah said: Al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah and ‘Urwah ibn Mas‘ud ath-Thaqafi. Al-Walid used to say: "If what Muhammad says were true, this Qur'an would have been sent down upon me or upon Abu Mas‘ud ath-Thaqafi" (Abu Mas‘ud being the kunya of ‘Urwah ibn Mas‘ud).

They never ceased denying that Allah would send a human as a messenger. When they learned through Allah’s repeated arguments that messengers were only men from the people of the cities, they brought forth denial from another angle: their insistence that it should have been one of these two men. Their saying "this Qur'an" was intended to belittle it. By "great man," they meant worldly leadership and status. Their intellects failed to grasp that the truly great person is the one who is great in the sight of Allah.

"Do they distribute the mercy of your Lord? It is We who have distributed among them their livelihood in the life of this world and have raised some of them above others in degrees [of rank] that they may make use of one another for service. But the mercy of your Lord is better than what they accumulate."