We sent only men before you
وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ إِلَّا رِجَالًا نُّوحِىٓ إِلَيْهِمْ فَسْـَٔلُوٓا۟ أَهْلَ ٱلذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ
wa-mā arsalnā min qablika illā rijālan nūḥī ilayhim fa-s'alū ahla l-dhikri in kuntum lā taʿlamūn — And We did not send before you except men to whom We transmit inspiration; so ask the people of the Reminder if you are not knowing.
Two verses carry the same statement and the same command to ask the people of the Reminder, differing only in the preposition before qablika: min qablika in (16:43) and qablika in (21:7).
The two verses are identical in wording except for one particle: (16:43) reads min qablika, while (21:7) reads qablika, with the rest of the Arabic matching word for word. In both, the statement does two things at once: it restricts the messengers sent before the addressee to men (illā rijālan), and it grounds that fact in how the message reached them—nūḥī ilayhim, 'to whom We transmit inspiration', a verb form that in both verses has We as its subject. The command fa-s'alū ahla l-dhikri, 'so ask the people of the Reminder', is attached in both verses with the same conditional: in kuntum lā taʿlamūn, 'if you are not knowing'. The surrounding context differs. In (16:43) the verse stands between a description of those who endure and entrust their affairs to their Lord (16:42) and a statement that the messengers were sent with clear evidences and writings, and that the Reminder was sent down to the addressee so that he might make clear to people what was sent down to them (16:44). In (21:7) the verse stands between a statement that no community destroyed before them attained faith (21:6) and a statement that the messengers were not made bodies that do not eat food, nor were they everlasting (21:8). The single difference, min qablika versus qablika, does not change the translation given for either verse; both render 'before you'.
Where it occurs
- 16:43 States that only men who received inspiration were sent before the addressee, and directs those not knowing to ask the people of the Reminder; uses min qablika.
- 21:7 States the same restriction and gives the same direction to ask the people of the Reminder; uses qablika without min.
All Qur'anic expressions