قُلْ إِنَّمَآ أَنَا۠ بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ يُوحَىٰٓ إِلَىَّ أَنَّمَآ إِلَٰهُكُمْ إِلَٰهٌ وَٰحِدٌ فَٱسْتَقِيمُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهِ وَٱسْتَغْفِرُوهُ
"Say: I am only a human being like you; it is revealed to me that your god is one God. So set yourselves straight towards Him, and ask His forgiveness."
In the fifth verse the other side had set a veil in between: wa min bayninā wa baynika ḥijāb — "between us and you there is a veil."
The sixth verse answers this, and the word of the answer is bashar: innamā anā basharun mithlukum — "I am only a human being like you."
I record this as my own reading; its ground is that the two verses come one after the other: the other side had made the distance between them its reason; the answer says that the distance is not between the parties. The difference is not between one human being and another — it is in the knowledge that comes. The clause yūḥā ilayya (it is revealed to me) is in the passive: the act is not his.
فَٱسْتَقِيمُوٓا۟ إِلَيْهِ — the root of istiqāma is ق-و-م; the analysis of the word was made at al-Baqara 2/255 and, in this corpus, at al-Aḥqāf 46/13.
Because this expression occurs in a sūra revealed in the Meccan period, two readings are transmitted in the classical commentaries:
| Reading | What zakāt is |
|---|---|
| 1 | A financial obligation — the zakāt that was set out in detail later |
| 2 | Purification — in the original sense of the root (ز-ك-و: to be cleansed, to increase) |
أَجْرٌ غَيْرُ مَمْنُونٍ — "an uninterrupted reward". The root م-ن-ن: to cut off; and to reproach someone with a favour done. The same construction was treated in al-Tīn, and mann (reproaching with a favour) was analysed at al-Baqara 2/262-264. Both senses work here: a reward that is neither cut off nor thrown back in the face.