“Should We then turn away from you the Reminder, disregarding you, because you are a transgressing people? How many a prophet We sent among the earlier peoples! Yet no prophet came to them without their mocking him. So We destroyed those mightier than they in power, and the precedent of the former peoples has passed on. And if you ask them who created the heavens and the earth, they will surely say, ‘The Almighty, the All-Knowing, created them.’” (5–9)

“Should We then turn away from you the Reminder, disregarding you?” One says, “I turned away from it” or “I refrained from it,” when one leaves it and holds back from it. “Disregarding” derives from the expression, “You disregarded him,” meaning that you turned away from him, by turning the side of your face [and your neck] toward him. (1) What is meant by “the Reminder” is the Quran. Its meaning is: Shall We withhold revelation from you and refrain from sending down the Quran, so that We neither command you [nor forbid you], (2) because you have exceeded all bounds in your disbelief and abandoned faith? This is a rhetorical question expressing denial; that is, We will not do so. This was the view of Qatadah and others.

Qatadah said: “By Allah, had this Quran been taken away when the earliest members of this community rejected it, they would have perished. But Allah again bestowed His favor and mercy upon them, and repeated it to them for twenty years, or for however long Allah willed.” (3)

It was also said that its meaning is: Shall We cease reminding you, turning away and disregarding you?

Al-Kisa’i said: Shall We completely fold away the Reminder from you, so that you are neither called nor admonished? Al-Kalbi said: Shall We leave you neglected, neither commanding you nor forbidding you? Mujahid and al-Suddi said: Shall We turn away from you and leave you, and thus not punish you for your disbelief? (4)

“Because you are a transgressing people.” The Medinan reciters, Hamzah, and al-Kisa’i recited it as in kuntum (“if you are”), with an initial “i” sound, in the sense of “since you are,” as in His saying, “You will be superior if you are believers” (Al Imran 139). The others recited it with an initial “a” sound, meaning: because you were a transgressing [polytheistic] people. (5)

“How many a prophet We sent among the earlier peoples! Yet no prophet came to them”—that is, no prophet ever came to them—“without their mocking him,” just as your people mock you. Thus He consoles His Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

“So We destroyed those mightier than they in power”: that is, stronger than your people—namely, the earlier nations who were destroyed for denying the messengers. “And the precedent of the former peoples has passed on”: that is, their characteristic, established way, and punishment. Thus these people will meet the same fate in destruction.

“And if you ask them”—that is, if you ask your people,