Surah al-Jumu'ah (Friday) is Medinan. (1)

In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.

“Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth glorifies Allah—the Sovereign, the Most Holy, the Almighty, the All-Wise. (1) He is the One who sent among the unlettered a Messenger from among themselves, reciting to them His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom, though before that they had certainly been in clear error. (2) And to others among them who have not yet joined them. And He is the Almighty, the All-Wise.” (3)

“Whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on earth glorifies Allah—the Sovereign, the Most Holy, the Almighty, the All-Wise. He is the One who sent among the unlettered”: that is, the Arabs. They were an unlettered nation, neither writing nor reading. “A Messenger from among themselves”: that is, Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. His lineage was theirs, [and his language was theirs, so that he might more effectively establish the proof against them]. (2) “Reciting to them His verses, purifying them, and teaching them the Book and wisdom, though before that they had certainly been in clear error”: that is, before the Messenger was sent, they had been in nothing but clear error, worshipping idols.

“And to others among them”: there are two grammatical analyses of “others.” The first is the genitive, coordinated with “the unlettered”; its sense is: and among others. The second is the accusative, coordinated with the pronoun in “and teaching them”; that is: and teaching others among them—meaning, among the believers who profess their religion. For when they embrace Islam, they become among them, since all Muslims are one community.

The scholars differed concerning them. Some said that they are the non-Arabs. This was the view of Ibn ‘Umar and Sa‘id ibn Jubayr, and it is a narration of Layth from Mujahid. The evidence for this is what Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Mu‘allim al-Tusi informed us: Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn