Al-Qur'an Surah An-Nisa Verse 164

Mufti Taqi Usmani

(We have sent) some Messengers We have already told you about, and some other Messengers We did not tell you about, and Allah has spoken to Mūsā verbally

Dr. Mustafa Khattab, the Clear Quran

There are messengers whose stories We have told you already and others We have not. And to Moses Allah spoke directly.

Ruwwad Translation Center

There are messengers whose stories We have already mentioned to you, and messengers We have not mentioned to you. And Allah spoke to Moses directly.

A. J. Arberry

and Messengers We have already told thee of before, and Messengers We have not told thee of; and unto Moses God spoke directly --

Abdul Haleem

to other messengers We have already mentioned to you, and also to some We have not. To Moses God spoke directly.

Abdul Majid Daryabadi

And We Revealed unto apostles of some of whom We have narrated unto thee aforetime and of others of whom We have not narrated unto thee; and unto Musa Allah spake directly.

Abdullah Yusuf Ali

Of some messengers We have already told thee the story; of others We have not;- and to Moses Allah spoke direct;-

Abul Ala Maududi

We revealed to the Messengers We have already told you of, and to the Messengers We have not told you of; and to Moses Allah spoke directly.

Ahmed Ali

And to many an apostle We have mentioned before, and to many other apostles We have not mentioned to you; and to Moses God spoke directly.

Ahmed Raza Khan

And to the Noble Messengers whom We have mentioned to you before, and to the Noble Messengers We have not mentioned to you; and Allah really did speak to Moosa.

Ali Quli Qarai

and apostles We have recounted to you earlier and apostles We have not recounted to you—and to Moses Allah spoke directly—

Ali Ünal

And Messengers We have already told you of (with respect to their mission) before, and Messengers We have not told you of; and God spoke to Moses in a particular way.

Amatul Rahman Omar

And (there are some) Messengers whom We have mentioned to you before and (some) Messengers We have not mentioned them to you, and Allâh spoke (to you as He spoke) to Moses in explicit words at great length.

English Literal

And messengers We had narrated/relayed them to you from before, and messengers We did not narrate/relay about them on you, and God conversed/spoke (to) Moses conversationally/speechfully .64

Faridul Haque

And to the Noble Messengers whom We have mentioned to you before, and to the Noble Messengers We have not mentioned to you; and Allah really did speak to Moosa.

Hamid S. Aziz

But Allah bears witness to what He has revealed to you: He revealed it from His own knowledge, and the angels bear witness too; though Allah is witness enough.

Hilali & Khan

And Messengers We have mentioned to you before, and Messengers We have not mentioned to you, - and to Musa (Moses) Allah spoke directly.

Maulana Mohammad Ali

Surely We have revealed to thee as We revealed to Noah and the prophets after him, and We revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and We gave to David a scripture.

Mohammad Habib Shakir

And (We sent) apostles We have mentioned to you before and apostles we have not mentioned to you; and to Musa, Allah addressed His Word, speaking (to him):

Mohammed Marmaduke William Pickthall

And messengers We have mentioned unto thee before and messengers We have not mentioned unto thee; and Allah spake directly unto Moses;

Muhammad Sarwar

(We sent revelations to) the Messengers mentioned to you before and also to Messengers who have not been mentioned to you. God spoke to Moses in words.

Qaribullah & Darwish

And Messengers of whom We have narrated to you before, and Messengers of whom We did not narrate to you. Certainly, Allah talked to Moses.

Safi-ur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri

And Messengers We have mentioned to you before, and Messengers We have not mentioned to you, and to Musa Allah spoke directly.

Wahiduddin Khan

We have told you about some messengers sent previously, while We have not yet told you about others. God spoke to Moses directly.

Talal Itani

Some messengers We have already told you about, while some messengers We have not told you about. And God spoke to Moses directly.

Tafsir jalalayn

And, We sent, messengers We have told you of before, and messengers We have not told you of; it is related that God sent eight thousand prophets [in total], four thousand [of them] from [the Children of] Israel, and [the remaining] four thousand from other peoples, as stated by the Shaykh [Jall al-Dn al- Mahall] in [his commentary on] srat Ghfir [Q. 40;78]; and God spoke directly, without mediation, to Moses,

Tafseer Ibn Kathir

وَرُسُلً قَدْ قَصَصْنَاهُمْ عَلَيْكَ مِن قَبْلُ

And Messengers We have mentioned to you before, and Messengers We have not mentioned to you.

Before the revelation of this Ayah.

The following are the names of the Prophets whom Allah named in the Qur'an. They are;

Adam,

Idris,

Nuh (Noah),

Hud,

Salih,

Ibrahim (Abraham),

Lut,

Ismail (Ishmael),

Ishaq (Isaac),

Yaqub (Jacob),

Yusuf (Joseph),

Ayub (Job),

Shu`ayb,

Musa (Moses),

Harun (Aaron),

Yunus (Jonah),

Dawud (David),

Suleiman (Solomon),

Ilyas (Elias),

Al-Yasa (Elisha),

Zakariyya (Zachariya),

Yahya (John) and

Isa (Jesus), and their leader,

Muhammad.

Several scholars of Tafsir also listed Dhul-Kifl among the Prophets.

Allah's statement,

وَرُسُلً لَّمْ نَقْصُصْهُمْ عَلَيْكَ

and Messengers We have not mentioned to you,

means, `there are other Prophets whom We did not mention to you in the Qur'an.'
The Virtue of Musa

Allah said,

وَكَلَّمَ اللّهُ مُوسَى تَكْلِيمًا



and to Musa Allah spoke directly.

This is an honor to Musa, and this is why he is called the Kalim, he whom Allah spoke to directly.

Al-Hafiz Abu Bakr bin Marduwyah recorded that Abdul-Jabbar bin Abdullah said,

"A man came to Abu Bakr bin Ayyash and said, `I heard a man recite (this Ayah this way);
وَكَلَّمَ اللّهَ مُوسَى تَكْلِيمًا
"and to Allah, Musa spoke directly."

Abu Bakr said, `Only a disbeliever would recite it like this.'

Al-A`mash recited it with Yahya bin Withab, who recited it with Abu Abdur-Rahman As-Sulami who recited it with Ali bin Abi Talib who recited with the Messenger of Allah,
وَكَلَّمَ اللّهُ مُوسَى تَكْلِيمًا
(and to Musa Allah spoke directly)."'

Abu Bakr bin Abi Ayyash was so angry with the man who recited the Ayah differently, because he altered its words and meanings. That person was from the group of Mutazilah who denied that Allah spoke to Musa or that He speaks to any of His creation.

We were told that some of the Mutazilah once recited the Ayah that way, so one teacher present said to him,

"O son of a stinking woman! What would you do concerning Allah's statement,

وَلَمَّا جَأءَ مُوسَى لِمِيقَـتِنَا وَكَلَّمَهُ رَبُّهُ

And when Musa came at the time and place appointed by Us, and his Lord spoke to him. (7;143)"

The Sheikh meant that the later Ayah cannot be altered or changed.
The Reason Behind Sending the Prophets is to Establish the Proof

Allah said