The Quran

Preface

وَما قَدَرُوا اللَّهَ حَقَّ قَدرِهِ إِذ قالوا ما أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ عَلىٰ بَشَرٍ مِن شَيءٍ ۗ قُل مَن أَنزَلَ الكِتابَ الَّذي جاءَ بِهِ موسىٰ نورًا وَهُدًى لِلنّاسِ ۖ تَجعَلونَهُ قَراطيسَ تُبدونَها وَتُخفونَ كَثيرًا ۖ وَعُلِّمتُم ما لَم تَعلَموا أَنتُم وَلا آباؤُكُم ۖ قُلِ اللَّهُ ۖ ثُمَّ ذَرهُم في خَوضِهِم يَلعَبونَ

Yusuf Ali

No just estimate of God¹ do they make when they say: “Nothing doth God send down to man (by way of revelation)” Say: “Who then sent down the Book which Moses brought?- a light and guidance to man:² But ye make it into (separate) sheets for show,³ while ye conceal much (of its contents): therein were ye taught that which ye knew notneither ye nor your fathers.” Say: “God (sent it down)”: Then leave them to plunge in vain discourse and trifling.

Qadara: to weigh, judge, or estimate the value of capacity of anything; to have power so to do. Cf. Qadir in 4:149 and n. 655. The Jews who denied the inspiration of Muḥammad had a good answer in their own books about the inspiration of Moses. To those who do not believe in Moses, the answer is more general: is it a just estimate of God to think either that He has not the power or the will to guide mankind, seeing that He is Omnipotent and the Source of all good? If you say that guidance comes, not through an inspired book or man, but through our general intelligence, we point to the spiritual ignorance of “you and your ancestors” the sad spiritual darkness of men and nations high in the intellectual scale.
Cf. 5:47 and n. 750, and 5:49. In those passages Guidance (in practical conduct) is put before Light (or spiritual insight), as they refer to ordinary or average men. Here Light (or spiritual insight) is put first as the question is: does God send inspiration?
The Message to Moses had unity: it was one Book. The present Old Testament is a collection of odd books (“sheets”) of various kinds: see Appendix 2, end of S. 5. In this way you can make a show, but there is no unity, and much of the spirit of the original is lost or concealed or overlaid. The same applies to the New Testament: see Appendix 3, after Appendix 2.