At-Taghaabun • EN-TAFSIR-MAARIF-UL-QURAN
﴿ ذَٰلِكَ بِأَنَّهُۥ كَانَت تَّأْتِيهِمْ رُسُلُهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ فَقَالُوٓا۟ أَبَشَرٌۭ يَهْدُونَنَا فَكَفَرُوا۟ وَتَوَلَّوا۟ ۚ وَّٱسْتَغْنَى ٱللَّهُ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ غَنِىٌّ حَمِيدٌۭ ﴾
“this, because time and again there came unto them their apostles with all evidence of the truth, but they [always] replied, "Shall mere mortal men be our guides?" And so they. denied the truth and turned away. But God was not in need [of them]: for God is self-sufficient, ever to be praised.”
فَقَالُوا أَبَشَرٌ يَهْدُونَنَا (…but they said, “ Shall some mortals give us guidance?”…64:6). Though the word basher [ mortal (s)] is singular, but in meaning it is plural. Therefore, the verb يَهْدُونَنَا ‘give us guidance’ is plural. All unbelievers held the notion that prophets and messengers cannot be human beings. The Qur’ an has time and again falsified and refuted this notion of the unbelievers. Alas, there is also a group of Muslims who denies the mortality of the Allah’ s Messenger. They need to think in which direction they are moving. His mortality is not contradictory to his prophet-hood, nor is it incompatible with his high station of messenger-ship, nor is his being a Messenger inconsistent with his being a Nur (light). He is Nur (light) as well as a mortal. It is a false analogy to compare his light with that of a lamp or of the sun or the moon.