who hoped that Allah would include them among that company. (1)

The point is that these people, once they recognised him to be the Messenger of Allah from the description they already possessed, could neither hold back their tears nor restrain their hearts from hastening to faith.

A similar passage is His—exalted is He—statement:

“Say, ‘Believe in it or do not believe. Those who were granted knowledge before it, when it is recited to them, fall down on their faces in prostration 107 and say, “Glory be to our Lord! The promise of our Lord has surely been fulfilled.” 108 And they fall on their faces weeping, and it increases them in humility.’ 109” (al-Isrāʾ 17:107-109).

Mujāhid, the leading authority on Quranic exegesis, said: They were a group from the People of the Book; when they heard the Quran they fell in prostration and said, “Glory be to our Lord! The promise of our Lord has certainly come to pass.” (2)

Allah—magnified be He—had promised, through the tongues of His prophets and messengers, that at the end of time He would send a prophet of tremendous stature whose religion would prevail over every other, whose call would spread to the farthest reaches of the earth, and at the head of whose community the Hour would be established. The adherents of the two earlier scriptures were all agreed that Allah had promised them this prophet. The fortunate among them recognised the truth, believed in him, and followed him, whereas the wretched said, “We are still waiting; no messenger has yet been sent.” (3) But when the fortunate ones heard the Quran from the Messenger, they knew he was the promised prophet; they fell in prostration to Allah, believing in Him and in His Messenger and confirming the promise He had now fulfilled. Seeing it with their own eyes, they exclaimed, “Glory be to our Lord! The promise of our Lord has indeed been carried out.”

Yūnus ibn Bukayr narrated from Salamah ibn ʿAbd Yasūʿ, from his father, from his grandfather