Tafseer of The Star · An-Najm · 53:56
This [Prophet] is a warner like the former warners.
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.
And His words "This is a warner from the warners of old" (53:56): The exegetes differed regarding the meaning of His words, He whose praise is exalted, to Muḥammad ﷺ: "This is a warner from the warners of old" — and His describing him as one of the warners of old, even though he is the last of them. Some of them said: the meaning of that is that he is a warner to his people, just as the warners who were before him were warners to their people, as one says: this one is one of the sons of Ādam, or one of mankind.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words "This is a warner from the warners of old," he said: Muḥammad ﷺ warned just as the messengers before him warned.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His words "This is a warner from the warners of old": Muḥammad ﷺ was only sent with that with which the messengers before him were sent.
Abū Kurayb related to us, saying: Ibn Yamān related to us, on the authority of Sharīk, on the authority of Jābir, on the authority of Abū Jaʿfar "This is a warner from the warners of old," he said: It is Muḥammad ﷺ.
And others said: the meaning of that is something other than all of this, and they said: its meaning is: this with which I have warned you, O people, of the calamities which I have mentioned to you that I caused to descend upon the communities before you, belongs to the warnings with which the communities before you were warned in the pages (ṣuḥuf) of Ibrāhīm and Mūsā.
* Mention of who said that:
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, on the authority of Ismāʿīl, on the authority of Abū Mālik "This is a warner from the warners of old," he said: belonging to that with which they warned their people in the pages of Ibrāhīm and Mūsā.
And this which I have mentioned on the authority of Abū Mālik accords more closely with the interpretation of the verse, and that is because Allah, the Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, mentioned this in the context of the verses about which He informed that they are in the pages of Ibrāhīm and Mūsā, as a warner belonging to the warnings of old which came to the communities before you just as they have come to you. Thus it is more fitting and more in accordance that by His word "This" reference is made to what preceded it in the text, than that it should indicate something else.
