These matters, then, belong to the religion upon which the revealed laws agree, as does most of what is contained in the Meccan surahs. These surahs encompass the fundamental principles upon which Allah’s messengers agreed, since their discourse includes the call to those who do not acknowledge messengership in principle. The Medinan surahs, by contrast, address those who acknowledge messengership in principle, such as the People of the Book, who believe in some and disbelieve in others, and the believers, who believe in Allah’s Books and messengers.

Accordingly, these surahs establish the laws through which Allah perfected the religion: the direction of prayer, pilgrimage, fasting, devotional retreat, jihad, the rules governing marriage and related matters, and financial rulings concerning justice, as in trade; benevolence, as in charity; and injustice, as in usury—as well as other matters that complete the religion.

Thus, the form of address in the Meccan surahs is:

“O mankind!”

This is because the call to the fundamental principles is universal: someone who does not acknowledge the foundation is not called to its subsidiary matters. When the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, migrated to Medina, where the believers gained strength and where the People of the Book also lived, both groups were addressed. The former were addressed with:

“O you who believe!”

And the latter with:

“O People of the Book!”

or:

“O Children of Israel!”

None of these forms of address was revealed in Mecca. The Medinan surahs, however, also contain the address:

“O mankind!”

This occurs in Sūrat al-Nisā’ and Sūrat al-Hajj, both of which are Medinan, and likewise in Sūrat al-Baqarah. This poses a difficulty for the statement of the learned scholar Ibn ʿAbbās, because the ruling in question encompasses humanity as a whole, and addressing people by a specific designation does not conflict with addressing them by a general one.