سُوْرَةُ الزُّخْرُفِ
Surah Az-Zukhruf (43) — Ayah 31
وَقَالُوا۟ لَوْلَا نُزِّلَ هَـٰذَا ٱلْقُرْءَانُ عَلَىٰ رَجُلٍ مِّنَ ٱلْقَرْيَتَيْنِ عَظِيمٍ ﴿31﴾
Translation by Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan & Dr. Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali
And they say: "Why is not this Qur’ân sent down to some great man of the two towns (Makkah and Tâ’if)?"
Word by Word — Arabic, Transliteration & Meaning
وَقَالُوا۟
waqālū
And they say
لَوْلَا
lawlā
Why not
نُزِّلَ
nuzzila
was sent down
هَـٰذَا
hādhā
this
ٱلْقُرْءَانُ
l-qur'ānu
the Quran
عَلَىٰ
ʿalā
to
رَجُلٍۢ
rajulin
a man
مِّنَ
mina
from
ٱلْقَرْيَتَيْنِ
l-qaryatayni
the two towns
عَظِيمٍ
ʿaẓīmin
great
Tafsir al-Quran al-Karim — Hafiz Abdus Salam Bin Muhammad Bhutvi
Tafsir al-Quran al-Karim is a 4-volume Quran commentary by Hafiz Abdus Salam bin Muhammad Bhutvi, a renowned Salafi (Ahl al-Hadith) scholar and Sheikh ul-Hadith from Pakistan. Based on over 45 years of teaching and research, this tafsir follows the methodology of Tafsir bil-Ma'thur — interpreting the Quran through authentic Hadith, statements of the Companions, and the understanding of the early generations (Salaf). It is distinguished by its complete avoidance of Israeliyyat (Judeo-Christian narratives) and unverified reports. The tafsir is originally written in Urdu, translated to English by tohed.com.
(Ayah 31) {وَ قَالُوْا لَوْ لَا نُزِّلَ هٰذَا الْقُرْاٰنُ … :} In the previous verse, their criticism of the Quran was mentioned, so in this verse, the objection against the bringer of the Quran is mentioned. The disbelievers were not even willing to accept that a human could be a messenger; their demand was that the messenger should be an angel. When it was explained to them with irrefutable arguments that Allah Almighty has always sent human messengers, that your forefathers Ibrahim and Ismail (peace be upon them) and other prophets, such as Musa (peace be upon him), were all humans, then leaving the demand for an angelic messenger, they raised this objection: why was this Quran not revealed to some great man from either of the two towns? The two towns refer to Makkah and Taif, because these were their central settlements. {’’ عَظِيْمٍ ‘‘} refers to greatness in terms of worldly wealth, status, and rank. Among the great men of Makkah, the commentators mention Walid bin Mughirah or Utbah bin Rabi’ah, and among the nobles of Taif, Urwah bin Mas’ud, Habib bin Amr, or Kinanah bin Abd Yalil, or other people of this kind. In the view of the disbelievers, due to the abundance of wealth and being leaders of the tribe, these people were deserving of prophethood. Muhammad (peace be upon him) was not worthy of it due to lack of wealth and status, because he neither had abundant wealth nor leadership of any tribe. This was the ignorance and severe foolishness of the disbelievers that they made wealth and status a condition for the office of prophethood.
