Surah 28 - Verse 44-46 (Verse by Verse)

(28:44) (O Muhammad), you were then not on the western side⁶⁰ when We bestowed this commandment (of Law), and you were not among its witnesses.⁶¹

60. The "western side" here signifies Mount Sinai where Moses was given the Torah. Mount Sinai lies to the west of Ḥijāz.

61. This alludes to the 70 elders of Israel who were summoned along with Moses for the Covenant. (This is mentioned in Surah al-A'raf 7:155 as well as in Exodus 24.)

(28:45) Thereafter We raised up many a generation and a long time passed.⁶² You were then not even present among the people of Midian to rehearse Our verses to them.⁶³ But it is We Who are sending news about that.

62. The Prophet (peace be on him) had no direct means of obtaining this information. These events which had taken place two thousand years earlier are now being narrated in the Qur'an as though they were eyewitness accounts. There could be no other source for all this information except God's Revelation.

63. Moses arrived in Midian and spent ten years there during which period a number of important events took place, and then he departed. Now, as we know well, the Prophet Muhammad (peace be on him) was born much later. Hence, it was out of the question for him to know first hand what had happened. His narration of these events with such vividness was not on the basis of his personal observation. Rather, it was based entirely on the information he received through Revelation.

(28:46) Nor were you on the side of the Mount (Sinai) when We called out to Moses (in the first instance). But it is out of Mercy from your Lord (that you are being informed of all this)⁶⁴ so that you may warn a people to whom no warner came before you.⁶⁵ Maybe they will take heed.

64. These three things are presented by way of proof of Muḥammad's Prophethood. At the time of the revelation of these verses, the unbelievers, in general, and the leaders of Makka, in particular, were bent upon proving that Muḥammad (peace be on him) was a false claimant to Prophethood. In this vicious campaign they enjoyed the support of Jewish scholars and Christian monks who lived in various parts of Hijaz. At the same time, the fact was that the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be on him) had not suddenly appeared among them as if from nowhere. He was a resident of the same city, and the Makkans knew about each and every aspect of his life.

For this reason, when these three proofs of his Prophethood were presented with an open challenge to any detractors, no one from Makka, Ḥijāz or the rest of the Arabian peninsula stood up to level the vile charge that is presently being made by Orientalists. True, the unbelievers then showed little reluctance in inventing lies and false accusations. But how could they fabricate such a stupid lie that would not even stand the test of critical scrutiny for a single day? How could they say that Muḥammad (peace be on him) had obtained all his information from this or that Jewish scholar or such and such a monk when they would have been unable to identify a single person in that regard? For as soon as they mentioned anyone specifically, it would be immediately apparent to all that they were lying. Nor could they have accused Muḥammad of owning a library of ancient books which he consulted and which were the source of his discourse. They could not have said so because they would not have been able to find a single scrap of paper around the unlettered Prophet (peace be on him).

Moreover, no one could contend that the Prophet (peace be on him) had obtained the services of translators specialising in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek works. Nor could even the most brazen liars among them have the temerity to accuse the Prophet Muḥammad (peace be on him) of obtaining all his information during his journeys through Syria and Palestine. It was impossible for them to do so for the simple reason that on those journeys he was not alone; he was one among a large caravan. Hence, if they brought such a charge against him, there would have been hundreds of first-hand witnesses - fellow travellers on those journeys who would have instantly refuted and dismissed their accusations as absolutely baseless.

Furthermore, we know that within two years of the Prophet's death, Muslims were engaged in warfare against the Romans. Now, if there had been a Christian monk or a Jewish rabbi in Syria or Palestine with whom the Prophet (peace be on him) had had any interchange on the matters mentioned in these narratives, the Romans would have created a great fuss about this. They would have argued quite fiercely that Muhammad (peace be on him), who had visited their country during the earlier part of his life, had obtained information from several of their citizens. After obtaining this information, he then returned to Makka claiming to be a Prophet on the basis of the knowledge he had thus collected. At that time, the unbelievers were in dire need of refuting the challenge presented by the Qur'an. Yet not a single person came forward with anything which proved that the Prophet (peace be on him) had drawn his information from any identifiable source other than that of Revelation.

It is also pertinent to point out that the Qur'an does not make this challenge in this verse alone; there are several other instances which contain similar statements. For instance, after narrating the story of the Prophet Zechariah (peace be on him) and Mary, the Qur'an says:

(O Muḥammad)! We reveal to you this account from a realm which lies beyond the reach of your perception for you were not with them when they drew lots with their pens about who should be Mary's guardian, and you were not with them when they disputed about it (Al 'Imran 3:44).

After narrating the story of Joseph (peace be on him), the Qur'an says the following:

(O Muḥammad!) This is some news from the unseen that We reveal to you for you were not present with them when Joseph's brothers jointly resolved on a plot (Yusuf 12:102).

Likewise, after narrating the story of Noah (peace be on him) in some detail, the Qur'an says:

We reveal to you these accounts of matters that are beyond the reach of human perception. Neither you nor your people knew about them before this. Be, then, patient. Surely, the good end is for the God- fearing (Hud 11:49).

The fact that the Qur'an frequently returns to this theme shows that it is one of the major arguments continuing its Divine origin: that hundreds of years after these events occurred, an unlettered person was narrating them in detail. Obviously no source for that information was available to him except that of Revelation.

It will also be noted that this challenge -- to identify any other source for this information other than Revelation - was one of the main reasons for Muḥammad's (peace be on him) acceptance by his contemporaries as a Prophet. They could appreciate that since there was no possible source from which the relevant information could have been drawn, the only possible explanation was Revelation. Just imagine how important it would have been for the opponents of the Islamic Movement at that time to refute this Qur'anic contention. It stands to reason that they would have explored all possible avenues to challenge it. One can also understand that had there been any weakness in the Qur'an, it would not have been difficult for the Prophet's contemporaries to prove it to be wrong.

65. A Prophet had not come to Arabia for about two thousand years, not since the days of Ishmael and Shu 'ayb. During this long interregnum, the Arabs had heard about Moses, Solomon and Jesus (peace be on them), and about their Messages, delivered as they were outside Arabia, but during this time no Prophet was raised in their own land.