And this is itself one of the hallmarks of his prophethood: that he informs the People of the Scripture of what they have adopted within their Book (1)—that they broke it up into separate parchments, laying some of it open while concealing much—and such knowledge could not have come from anyone but them except through revelation from Allah.

Nor is it required (2) that the phrase, “You turn it into parchments,” be addressed to the very people who were quoted as saying, “Allah has sent nothing down to any human being.” Rather, the discourse here slips from one matter to its analogue, its counterpart, or its necessary correlate (3). The Qur’an contains many passages of this kind, such as His words: “We certainly created man from an extract of clay (12); then We placed him as a drop of fluid in a secure lodging (13); then We fashioned the drop into a clinging clot, and We fashioned the clot into a lump of flesh…” to the end of the verse (al-Mu’minun 12-14).

Thus the text digresses from the person created from clay—Adam—to the species created from a drop of fluid—his offspring—and uses the same pronoun for all of them in a single expression.

A similar example is His saying: “He is the One who created you from a single soul and from it made its mate so that he might find tranquillity with her. When he covered her, she conceived a light burden and carried it about; then, when it became heavy, they both called upon Allah, their Lord: ‘If You grant us a righteous child, we shall surely be among the grateful.’ (189) But when He granted them a righteous child, they set up partners for Him in what He had bestowed upon them. Exalted is Allah above what they associate (with Him)” (al-A‘raf 189-190), and so on to the end of those verses.

Something comparable is His statement: “And if you were to ask them, ‘Who created the heavens and the earth…’”