—nor, indeed, do His words, “Glory be to my Lord! I am nothing but a human messenger” (Qur’an 17:93), indicate that anyone else is superior to him.
The Messenger’s role is to convey the Qur’an from Allah, not to compose it.
The Almighty says:
“Your companion is not mad. He truly saw him on the clear horizon. He is not begrudging of the unseen, nor is this the utterance of a banished devil.” (Qur’an 81:22–25)
In these verses the messenger in question is the angelic envoy, Jibril.
In another surah He says:
“Indeed, it is the speech of a noble messenger. It is not the speech of a poet—how little you believe! Nor is it the speech of a soothsayer—how little you take heed. It is a revelation from the Lord of all worlds. Had he forged any saying against Us, We would have seized him by the right hand, then severed his aorta, and none of you could have shielded him.” (Qur’an 69:40–47)
Here the messenger is Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace.
Thus the Qur’an is at times ascribed to one messenger and at times to the other, because both of them transmitted and delivered it. The very word “messenger” implies a sender who commissioned him, making it clear that the messenger is merely a conduit and has originated nothing himself. Some people mistakenly think that attributing the Qur’an to a messenger means that he authored the Arabic Qur’an, yet Allah alternately attributes it to each of the two messengers; were authorship intended, the two statements would contradict each other.
Moreover, whenever He attributes it to the Prophet, He does so under the title “messenger.” He never describes it as the speech of an angel or of a human being—in fact, He declares disbelievers those who claim it is human speech:
“Leave Me with the one I created alone, to whom I granted abundant wealth and sons ever at his side, and for whom I paved everything smoothly. Yet he still desires that I should add more. No! He has been stubborn toward Our signs; I will consign him to an ever-increasing torment. Indeed, he thought and planned—so let him perish, how he planned! Again, let him perish, how he planned! Then he looked; then he frowned and scowled; then he turned away and grew arrogant, saying, ‘This is nothing but magic inherited; this is nothing but the speech of a human being.’ Soon I shall cast him into Saqar.” (Qur’an 74:11–26)
The discourse…