Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 196 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:196

وَإِنَّهُۥ لَفِى زُبُرِ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ

“And indeed, it is [mentioned] in the scriptures of former peoples.”

Saheeh International

Essence

What came to Muhammad ﷺ was no new invention: its mention and its message already stood in the scriptures of earlier peoples.

A reflection

Not new, and not trying to be

A technology keynote opens with dimmed lights and a single word on the screen: new. The speaker promises an app that will reinvent friendship. The audience applauds. Within two years the app has gone, and friendship carries on as it always did.

We live in a culture that treats novelty as proof of value. A new idea sounds better than an old one. 'Groundbreaking' is a compliment, and 'old-fashioned' is not.

This ayah makes the opposite claim, and stresses it twice over, with inna and with la-. Wa-innahu la-fī zuburi l-awwalīn: and indeed it is in the scriptures of the earlier peoples. The commentaries explain it as the mention of the Quran, set down in the books of earlier prophets, which gave news of it. Some add that much of its meaning is there too. The oneness of Allah, His attributes, and many of its admonitions and stories were already written.

The Quran is the last of the revealed books. Yet its credential here is not its newness. It is its age. It does not present itself as a fresh religion launched in seventh-century Arabia. It presents itself as the oldest message there is, given again.

There is something freeing in that. You do not have to be the first to discover what life is for. People before you were told. Their prophets wrote it down. Some believed and some refused, and their stories fill this very surah.

For anyone tired of chasing the next thing, this is a resting place. The truth you need is not waiting in next year's discovery. It has stood in the books of the former peoples all along. What is new is only that it has now been addressed to you.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.