“Those who disbelieve say, ‘You are not a messenger.’ Say, ‘Allah is sufficient as a witness between me and you, and so is whoever possesses knowledge of the Book.’” (43)

“And those before them had indeed plotted,” that is, those before the idolaters of Mecca. Plotting is to bring upon a person something he dislikes from a direction of which he is unaware.

“But all plotting belongs to Allah,” meaning that with Allah lies the requital for their plotting. It has also been said that Allah is the Creator of all their plotting. Good and evil are in His hand, and benefit and harm belong to Him; thus, no one’s plotting can harm another except by His permission.

“He knows what every soul earns, and the disbelievers will come to know.” The people of the Hijaz and Abu ‘Amr recited it in the singular, “the disbeliever,” while the others recited, “the disbelievers,” in the plural. “For whom shall be the final abode,” that is, who will have the final outcome in the Hereafter: when they enter the Fire and the believers enter Paradise.

“Those who disbelieve say, ‘You are not a messenger.’ Say, ‘Allah is sufficient as a witness between me and you’”—that I am His Messenger to you—“and so is whoever possesses knowledge of the Book,” referring to the believing People of the Book, who likewise testify to this.

Qatadah said: “It is Abdullah ibn Salam.” (1)

Al-Sha‘bi rejected this and said: “The surah is Meccan, whereas Abdullah ibn Salam embraced Islam in Medina.”

Abu Bishr said: “I said to Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, ‘Does “whoever possesses knowledge of the Book” refer to Abdullah ibn Salam?’ He replied, ‘How could it be Abdullah ibn Salam when this surah is Meccan?’” (2)

Al-Hasan and Mujahid said: “Whoever possesses knowledge of the Book” is Allah. (3) This is indicated by the recitation of Abdullah ibn Abbas: wa-min ‘indihi (and from Him), with the mim and dal bearing kasrah—that is, from Allah. Al-Hasan also recited