The Quran

109

Preface

وَما أَرسَلنا مِن قَبلِكَ إِلّا رِجالًا نوحي إِلَيهِم مِن أَهلِ القُرىٰ ۗ أَفَلَم يَسيروا فِي الأَرضِ فَيَنظُروا كَيفَ كانَ عاقِبَةُ الَّذينَ مِن قَبلِهِم ۗ وَلَدارُ الآخِرَةِ خَيرٌ لِلَّذينَ اتَّقَوا ۗ أَفَلا تَعقِلونَ

Yusuf Ali

Nor did We send before thee (as messengers) any but men,¹ whom we did inspire,- (men) living in human habitations. Do they not travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those before them? But the home of the Hereafter² is best, for those who do right. Will ye not then understand?

I was man that God sent as His Messengers to explain Him to man. He did not send angels or gods. Into His chosen men He breathed His inspirations, so that they could see truer than other men. But they were men living with men-in men’s habitations in town or country; not reclues or cenobites, who had no personal experience of men’s affairs and could not be teachers of men in the fullest sense. Their deeds tell their own tale.
The righteous, the men of God, had, as in Joseph’s history, some evidence of God’s Providence in this very world with all its imperfections as reflecting our imperfections. But this world is of no real consequance of them. Their home is in the Hereafter Josepth’s eartly home was in Canaan: but he attained his glory elsewhere; and his spiritual Home is in the great Society of the Righteous.(3:39).