—how can we speak to him?” This is the meaning approached by those Quran commentators and grammatical analysts who say that kāna (“was”)—nabiyyan (“a prophet”)—means yakūnu (“is/will be”). Yet they did not approach it correctly; rather, they left this interpretation without explaining its underlying construction or application. Others failed to grasp it because of its subtlety and precision, and therefore said that kāna was redundant.

The correct explanation is what I have told you. Accept it freely: its benefit is yours, and responsibility for any error is mine. Is not man (“one who”) in this verse governed by the verb, without an answering clause, while still retaining a conditional sense? The same applies to His words: “Nor am I a worshipper of what you have worshipped.” All this can be understood from the statements of leading grammarians such as al-Zajjāj and others.

Once this is established, the wisdom behind using the past-tense verb in “Nor am I a worshipper of what you have worshipped” becomes clear. This differs from “Nor are you worshippers of what I worship,” where mā (“what”) is far removed from a conditional sense. Through this, Allah draws attention to His protection of His Prophet from having any object of worship besides Him, or from moving between objects of worship as the disbelievers do.

The fourth question is why the negation concerning them is expressed only through the active participle, whereas concerning him it is expressed once through a verb and once through an active participle.

This—and Allah knows best—serves a remarkable purpose. The foremost intention is to declare his complete dissociation from their objects of worship, in every respect and at all times. First comes the verb form, which denotes an action occurring and recurring. Then the same negation is expressed a second time through the active participle, conveying: this is neither my character nor my way. It is as though he said: Worshipping anything other than Allah is neither something I do nor a quality that describes me. Thus two negations are used, each directed at something specifically intended to be denied.

As for them, only the nominal form is used, denoting an established quality, rather than the verb. That is, this settled, enduring description in relation to Allah does not apply to you. It is not an established description of you; rather, it applies only to those who worship Allah alone and associate no one with Him in worship. Since you worship others besides Him, you are not among His worshippers, even if they worship Him at times. For the polytheist