9وَلَو جَعَلناهُ مَلَكًا لَجَعَلناهُ رَجُلًا وَلَلَبَسنا عَلَيهِم ما يَلبِسونَMuhammad AsadAnd [even] if We had appointed an angel as Our message-bearer,1 We would certainly have made him [appear as] a man - and thus We would only have confused them in the same way as2 they are now confusing themselves.Lit., "if We had made him an angel" - with the pronoun obviously referring to the bearer of God's message (Zamakhshari).Lit., "We would have made confusing to them that which they are making confused". Since it is impossible for man to perceive angels as they really are, the hypothetical angelic message-bearer would have to assume the shape of a human being - and so their demand for a direct "verification" of the message would have remained unfulfilled, and their self-caused confusion unresolved.