“…You were not on the western slope when We decreed the command to Moses, nor were you among the witnesses; but We raised up succeeding generations and long years passed over them. Nor were you living among the people of Midian, reciting Our verses to them; rather, We have always been sending messengers. And you were not at the side of the Mount when We called out—yet all of this is but a mercy from your Lord…” (al-Qasas 44–46).

A human being can learn such matters only through direct sight or through a report. By saying, “and you were not with them,” He alerts you that your knowledge of these events has come solely through Our informing you—by revelation and disclosure—not through any human intermediary. Everyone who knew him understood that he had never heard this from any person, and that neither he nor his people possessed such knowledge.

The Exalted also said: “Say, ‘Had Allah willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I have lived among you a whole lifetime before it—will you not then use your reason?’ ” (Yūnus 16).

With this He made clear that his recitation of this Book to them, and their coming to know of it—that is, his conveying it to them—happened only by Allah’s will and power, not from himself, just as the Exalted says: