Al-Ahqaf 46:9–12

Commentary

وَمَا أَدْرِ‌ي مَا يُفْعَلُ بِي وَلَا بِكُمْ ۖ إِنْ أَتَّبِعُ إِلَّا مَا يُوحَىٰ إِلَيَّ (and I do not know what will be done to me or to you. I do not follow anything but what is revealed to me - 46:9) The sentence, "I do not follow anything but what is revealed to me," has been used here as an 'exception' to the previous sentence, meaning thereby that I do not know anything except what is revealed to me through wahy. The gist of the explanation given to this verse by Imam Dahhak (رح) is that the knowledge of some unseen things can be obtained by the Holy Prophet ﷺ only through wahy, and he does not have any knowledge about those unseen things which were not revealed to him through wahy, be they about his own self, about the believers and disbelievers among his people, or about matters pertaining to this world or to the Hereafter. Whatever the Holy Prophet ﷺ has said about the unseen things is obtained through wahy. The noble Qur'an has declared that the Holy Prophet ﷺ was blessed by the knowledge of innumerable things from the Unseen (ghaib), but all this knowledge was given to him by the divine revelation. This is exactly what the Holy Qur'an means by saying,

تِلْكَ مِنْ أَنبَاءِ الْغَيْبِ نُوحِيهَا إِلَيْكَ

"These are some reports from the unseen (events) which We reveal to you." (11: 49)

Details of matters relating to the Hereafter, Hell, Paradise, accountability, reward and punishment are given in the Holy Qur'an itself, and many details of certain future events that had to take place in this world are given in authentic ahadith reported from the Holy Prophet ﷺ . Thus the substance of the present verse is simply that the knowledge of the Holy Prophet ﷺ about the Unseen is not all-encompassing as is that of Allah Almighty, nor is it independently obtained; he simply reproduces whatever Allah Almighty tells him through wahy.

After having reproduced this explanation, the author of Ruh-ul-Ma’ ani says, "It is my belief that the Holy Prophet ﷺ did not leave this world until he was blessed by wahy with such a knowledge about Allah Ta’ ala, His attributes and about all those things the knowledge of which could be meritorious that no other in the whole universe has ever been blessed with. But I do not believe that unawareness about trivial worldly affairs like the acts of some particular individuals and what they do at their homes and what happens to them one day or the other can in any way reduce his excellence."

Dictate of etiquette regarding the knowledge of the Holy Prophet t about unseen matters

Respect for the Holy Prophet ﷺ demands that one should not say that he did not know the Unseen; rather one should say that Allah Ta` a1a had given such vast knowledge of unseen matters to him as was not given to any other prophet.

The explanation given by some exegetes that the negation in this verse is only about the unseen affairs pertaining to this world, and not about the Hereafter (as stated by Qurtubi) is probably because they have not taken the words, "I do not follow anything but what is revealed to me," in the sense of an exception to the previous sentence; hence the negation of the knowledge of unseen things has been made specific to the affairs of this world, because the Holy Prophet ﷺ has told very clearly about the Hereafter that the Mu'min would go to Paradise, and the 'kafir' would go to Hell.

وَشَهِدَ شَاهِدٌ مِّن بَنِي إِسْرَ‌ائِيلَ عَلَىٰ مِثْلِهِ فَآمَنَ وَاسْتَكْبَرْ‌تُمْ (and a witness from the children of Isra'il testifies about something similar to it and comes to believe in it while you persist in your arrogance, [ then, how unjust you are!]....- 46:10) The subject of this verse is almost the same as of the verse of the last chapter of Surah As-Shu'ara'

أَوَلَمْ يَكُن لَّهُمْ آيَةً أَن يَعْلَمَهُ عُلَمَاءُ بَنِي إِسْرَ‌ائِيلَ

Is it not a proof for them that the knowledgeable of the children of Isra it recognize him (the Prophet)? (26: 197)

The gist is that these ignorant Jews and Christians who deny the messenger-ship of the Holy Prophet ﷺ and disbelieve the Qur'an are ignorant of their own books, because many scholars of Bani Isra'il having found the prophethood of the Holy Prophet t- and its signs mentioned in their books and having witnessed those signs, have come to believe in him. Even the testimony of their own scholars is not enough for these ignorant people.

Verse 10 of this Sarah states that their falsification of the Holy Prophet ﷺ and their claim about the Qur'an that it is a forgery, is baseless firstly because, as mentioned in verse 8, if anyone lays a false claim to prophethood, he has to be eliminated by the divine punishment right in this world, so that the common people may be saved from his fraudulent claims, Secondly, if they do not accept this argument, they should, at least, not overlook the possibility that if his claim is correct, and this book is actually from Allah Ta’ ala, and they continue to persist in their arrogance, denial and disbelief, specially when one of their own learned scholar from Bani Isra'il testifies the Book to be from Allah, and comes to believe in it, then what will be their end and how severe a punishment will they deserve?

This verse does not name any particular scholar of Bani Isra'iil, nor does it specify whether the testimony had already been given before this verse was revealed, or it would come afterwards. It, in effect, sounds a warning that should such a situation have already arisen or if it should arise in future, one should worry about saving one's skin. Therefore, understanding this verse is not dependent upon the determination of a particular testifier; rather all the Jews and Christians who embraced Islam, of which Sayyidna ` Abdullah Ibn Salam ؓ is more prominent, are included herein, although he embraced Islam in Madinah, while this verse was revealed in Makkah. (Ibn Kathir)

The statement by Sayyidna Sa'd ؓ reported in some narrations of Bukhari, Muslim and Nasa'i, that this verse was revealed about Sayyidna ` Abdullah Ibn Salam ؓ and the same statement from Ibn ` Abbas ؓ ، Mujahid , Dahhak, Qatadah , etc. is not against this verse being Makki, as in this case, it will be a prophecy for the future. (IbnKathir)

Commentary

لَوْ كَانَ خَيْرً‌ا مَّا سَبَقُونَا إِلَيْهِ (Had it [ Islamic faith ] been a good thing, these [ weak and poor ] people would not have preceded us [ in proceeding ] towards it._ 46:11) Arrogance and pride pervert the human intellect also. An arrogant person considers his own opinions and deeds to be the criteria for determining right and wrong, good and bad. If he does not like anything, no matter how well it is believed to be by others, he considers all those people to be stupid, while he himself is stupid. The arrogance and pride of the infidels was of this very kind, and since they did not like Islamic faith, they used to say about it's lovers that had it been a good thing, they themselves would have been the first to adopt it, and that one should not trust the choice of these poor people.

Ibn Mundhir (رح) etc., have reproduced a narration according to which this verse was revealed about a slave-girl of Sayyidna ` Umar Ibn Khattab ؓ named Zunairah who had embraced Islam when he was still a disbeliever. She used to be beaten up and threatened by him, so that she might give up Islam somehow or the other, and the kuffar of Quraish used to say that had Islamic faith been a good thing, such a worthless woman as Zunairah would not have preceded us in embracing it. (Mazhari)

وَمِن قَبْلِهِ كِتَابُ مُوسَىٰ إِمَامًا وَرَ‌حْمَةً (And before this, there was the Book of Musa, a guide and a mercy. - 46:12) This verse, for one thing, gives proof of the statement mentioned in verse 9 that the Holy Prophet ﷺ is not an unprecedented messenger and Qur'an is not a singular divine Book which may create doubts in the minds. Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) came before him as a messenger, and Torah was revealed to him which is accepted by all these Jews and Christians. Secondly, it supports the verse 10 above, because Sayyidna Musa (علیہ السلام) and Torah themselves are witnesses to the Holy Prophet ﷺ being the messenger of Allah and the Qur'an being Allah's Book.