Tafseer of The Women · An-Nisaa · 4:164
And [We sent] messengers about whom We have related [their stories] to you before and messengers about whom We have not related to you. And Allah spoke to Moses with [direct] speech.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of His word: وَرُسُلا قَدْ قَصَصْنَاهُمْ عَلَيْكَ مِنْ قَبْلُ وَرُسُلا لَمْ نَقْصُصْهُمْ عَلَيْكَ وَكَلَّمَ اللَّهُ مُوسَى تَكْلِيمًا (164) (And messengers We have already related to you before, and messengers We have not related to you. And Allah spoke to Mūsā with [direct] speech.) (4:164)
Abū Jaʿfar said: By this He means — exalted be His praise —: Indeed, We have revealed to you, just as We revealed to Nūḥ and to messengers whom We have already related to you, and to messengers whom We have not related to you.
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Perhaps someone will say: If that is its meaning, then how is it that His word "and messengers" (wa-rusulan) stands in the accusative (manṣūb) and not in the genitive (makhfūḍ)? To this it is answered: this stands in the accusative because the preposition "ilā" (to), which placed the nouns before it in the genitive, does not extend to it. And the nouns before it, even though they stand in the genitive, nevertheless have the meaning of the accusative. For the meaning of the word is: Indeed, We have sent you as a messenger, just as We sent Nūḥ and the prophets after him. Thus "the messengers" were, in meaning, joined to the nouns before them with respect to the case ending — on account of their being detached from them, not with respect to their wording — since that which placed them in the genitive did not extend to them, as the poet said:
Even if you came with bread for him, spread out, and the eggs together boiled, and the sugar,
that would not please him, until he became drunk.
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And it is possible that "the messengers" stand in the accusative on account of the connection of the "wāw" with the verb, in the sense of: And We have related to you messengers before, just as He — exalted be His praise — said: يُدْخِلُ مَنْ يَشَاءُ فِي رَحْمَتِهِ وَالظَّالِمِينَ أَعَدَّ لَهُمْ عَذَابًا أَلِيمًا [Sūra al-Insān: 31] (He admits whom He wills into His mercy, and the wrongdoers — He has prepared for them a painful punishment.)
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And it has been mentioned that this, in the reading of Ubayy, reads: (wa-rusulun qad qaṣaṣnāhum ʿalayka min qablu wa-rusulun lam naqṣuṣhum ʿalayka) (And messengers We have related to you before, and messengers We have not related to you — in the nominative). The nominative, when it is read thus, is on account of the referring pronoun in His word "We have related them to you" (qaṣaṣnāhum ʿalayka).
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As for His word "And Allah spoke to Mūsā with [direct] speech," by it He means — exalted be His praise —: And Allah addressed Mūsā with His speech, a true addressing. And:
10842 — Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ related to us, saying: Nūḥ ibn Abī Maryam related to us, and he was asked: How did Allah speak to Mūsā with [direct] speech? He said: Mouth to mouth (mushāfaha).
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And:
10843 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of Ibn Mubārak, on the authority of Maʿmar and Yūnus, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, who said: Jazyy ibn Jābir al-Khathʿamī informed me, saying: I heard Kaʿb say: Indeed, when Allah — exalted be His praise — spoke to Mūsā, He spoke to him in all the languages before his language — that is: the language of Mūsā — and he began to say: O Lord, I do not understand it! Until He spoke to him in his language, the last of the languages, and he said: O Lord, is Your speech thus? He said: No, and were you to hear My speech — that is: as it truly is — then you would be nothing!
= Ibn Wakīʿ said: Abū Usāma said: And Abū Bakr al-Ṣaghānī added to me in this narration that Mūsā said: O Lord, is there in Your creation anything that resembles Your speech? He said: No, and the closest to My speech in likeness among My creation is the most severe of what people hear of the thunderclaps.
10844 — Ibn Wakīʿ related to us, saying: Abū Usāma related to us, on the authority of ʿUmar ibn Ḥamza ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, who said: I heard Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī say: Mūsā was asked: To what did you compare the speech of your Lord from that which He has created? Mūsā said: The flowing thunder (al-raʿd al-sākib).
10845 — Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, saying: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb related to us, saying: Yūnus informed me, on the authority of Ibn Shihāb, who said: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān informed me, that Jazʾ ibn Jābir al-Khathʿamī informed him, saying: When Allah spoke to Mūsā in all the languages before his language, he began to say: By Allah, O Lord, I do not grasp this! Until He spoke to him in his language, the last of the languages, with the like of his voice, and Mūsā said: O Lord, is this Your speech? He said: No. He said: Is there in Your creation anything that resembles Your speech? He said: No, and the closest to My speech in likeness among My creation is the most severe of what people hear of the thunderclaps.
10846 — Abū Yūnus al-Makkī related to me, saying: Ibn Abī Uways related to us, saying: My brother informed me, on the authority of Sulaymān, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAtīq, on the authority of Ibn Shihāb, on the authority of Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām: that Jazʾ ibn Jābir al-Khathʿamī informed him: that he heard Kaʿb al-Aḥbār say: When Allah spoke to Mūsā in all the languages before his language, Mūsā began to say: O Lord, by Allah, I do not grasp this! Until He spoke to him in the last of the languages, in his language, with the like of his voice, and Mūsā said: O Lord, is Your speech thus? He said: Were I to speak to you with My speech, you would be nothing! He said: O Lord, is there in Your creation anything that resembles Your speech? He said: No, and the closest to My speech in likeness among My creation is the most severe of what is heard of the thunderclaps.
10847 — Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm related to us, saying: ʿAmr related to us, saying: Zuhayr related to us, on the authority of Yaḥyā, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām, on the authority of Jazʾ ibn Jābir: that he heard Kaʿb say: When Allah spoke to Mūsā in the languages before his language, Mūsā began to say: O Lord, I do not grasp this! Until Allah spoke to him in the last of the languages with the like of his language, and Mūsā said: O Lord, is this Your speech? Allah said: Were I to speak to you with My speech, you would be nothing! He said: O Lord, is there then anything of Your creation that resembles Your speech? He said: No, and the closest to My speech in likeness among My creation is the most severe of what is heard of the thunderclaps.
