—at His right hand (1).

This passage, then, enfolds the three missions: the prophethood of Moses, the prophethood of Jesus, and the prophethood of Muhammad ﷺ.

His coming from Sinai—the mountain upon which Allah spoke to Moses and appointed him a prophet—heralds Moses’s prophethood. His shining forth from Seir denotes the Messiah’s emergence from Jerusalem (2); Seir is a village that is still known by that name today, and this is a glad tiding of the Messiah’s prophethood. Paran, moreover, is Mecca.

The Almighty likened Moses’s prophethood to the break of dawn, the Messiah’s prophethood that followed to the brightening splendor of sunrise, and the prophethood of the Seal of the Prophets ﷺ to the sun’s full ascent and the spread of its light across the horizons. Events occurred exactly as foretold: Allah, exalted is He, pierced the night of disbelief with Moses’s prophethood, whose dawn lit up the world; the brilliance increased with the prophethood of the Messiah; and the light reached perfection, manifested openly and filled the earth with the prophethood of Muhammad—may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon them all (3).

The mention of these three prophet-hoods in this glad tiding is parallel to their mention at the opening of Sūrah al-Tīn: “By the fig and the olive (1), by Mount Sinai (2), and by this secure city (3)” ⦗al-Tīn 1–3⦘.

Thus He cites the homelands of those Prophets and the territories from which they arose. As for “the fig and the olive,” what is meant is the land where they grow—the sacred land that