Surah Yunus >> Currently viewing Surah Yunus Ayat 16 (10:16)

Surah Yunus Ayat 16 in Arabic Text

قُل لَّوۡ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ مَا تَلَوۡتُهُۥ عَلَيۡكُمۡ وَلَآ أَدۡرَىٰكُم بِهِۦۖ فَقَدۡ لَبِثۡتُ فِيكُمۡ عُمُرٗا مِّن قَبۡلِهِۦٓۚ أَفَلَا تَعۡقِلُونَ
Qul law shaaa’al laahu maa talawtuhoo ‘alaikum wa laaa adraakum bihee faqad labistu feekum ‘umuran min qablih; afalaa ta’qiloon

English Translation

Here you can read various translations of verse 16

Sahih International
Say, “If Allah had willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you, for I had remained among you a lifetime before it. Then will you not reason?”

Yusuf Ali
Say: “If Allah had so willed, I should not have rehearsed it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. A whole life-time before this have I tarried amongst you: will ye not then understand?”

Abul Ala Maududi
Tell them: ‘Had Allah so willed, I would not have recited the Qur’an to you, nor would Allah have informed you of it. I have spent a lifetime among you before this. Do you, then, not use your reason?

Muhsin Khan
Say (O Muhammad SAW): “If Allah had so willed, I should not have recited it to you nor would He have made it known to you. Verily, I have stayed amongst you a life time before this. Have you then no sense?”

Pickthall
Say: If Allah had so willed I should not have recited it to you nor would He have made it known to you. I dwelt among you a whole lifetime before it (came to me). Have ye then no sense?

Dr. Ghali
Say, “If Allah had (so) decided, in no way would I have recited it (i.e. the Qur’an) to you, neither would He have made you realize (what) it is. So I have already lingered among you an age even before it. Do you not consider?”.

Abdel Haleem
Say, ‘If God had so willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I lived a whole lifetime among you before it came to me. How can you not use your reason?’

Muhammad Junagarhi
آپ یوں کہہ دیجئے کہ اگر اللہ کو منظور ہوتا تو نہ تو میں تم کو وه پڑھ کر سناتا اور نہ اللہ تعالیٰ تم کو اس کی اطلاع دیتا کیونکہ میں اس سے پہلے تو ایک بڑے حصہ عمر تک تم میں ره چکا ہوں۔ پھر کیا تم عقل نہیں رکھتے

Quran 10 Verse 16 Explanation

For those looking for commentary to help with the understanding of Surah Yunus ayat 16, we’ve provided two Tafseer works below. The first is the tafseer of Abul Ala Maududi, the second is of Ibn Kathir.

Ala-Maududi

(10:16) Tell them: ‘Had Allah so willed, I would not have recited the Qur’an to you, nor would Allah have informed you of it. I have spent a lifetime among you before this. Do you, then, not use your reason?[21]


21. This is a very strong argument against their accusation that Muhammad (peace be upon him) was himself the author of the Quran but was ascribing it to Allah, and in support of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) claim that it was being sent down to him by Allah, Who was its Author. The argument is this: You yourselves have witnessed the forty years of his life before his appointment to Prophethood. He was born in your own city and passed his boyhood, youth and middle age before your very eyes. He lived among you and had all kinds of relations, social, marital, economic, etc. with you. So much so that no aspect of his life was hidden from you. Did you notice anything in his whole life that might show that he could be the author of this Book? Do you not use your commonsense?

The question posed in the Quran implied two things which were well known to everyone in Makkah about the Prophet (peace be upon him):

First, during the forty years of his life before Prophethood, he had neither received any education nor training nor sat in any company that should have enabled him to become the author of such a Book as was full of unique things that were unknown to the people around him. No one had ever heard from him anything about the problems that had been dealt with in different Surahs of the Quran. So much so that not even a relative or close friend of his had ever noticed anything in his talk or in anything about him that might have shown any signs of gradual development towards it before he made his great claim to Prophethood when he reached the age of forty. This was a clear proof of the fact that the Quran was not the invention of his own mind and that it must have been sent down to him from outside. For it is impossible for a human being to produce anything like this, all of a sudden and without ever manifesting any signs of its evolution and development in his earlier life. That is why when some intelligent people of Makkah felt the absurdity of this accusation, they began to say that it was some other person who taught these things to him. But this was even more absurd than the first thing because they could not point out specifically a single person in the whole of Arabia, not to say of Makkah, who had the ability of producing such unique things as were contained in the Quran. They also knew that a person of such high caliber could not have remained obscure in some unknown corner for forty years.

The second thing, that had distinguished him during those forty years of his life, was his noble character both from the negative and from the positive aspects. He was never known to have told a single lie or practiced any kind of deceit, forgery, cunning, craftiness and the like in any way whatsoever, On the other hand, all those people with whom he had come into contact in any capacity bore witness to the fact that he had been truthful, honest, and trustworthy without any blemish whatsoever. As an instance, a most well known historical fact may be cited. Only five years before his Prophethood, the Kaabah was damaged by rains. When they were re-building it, a quarrel arose among the different clans of the Quraish as to who should have the honor of setting Hajr-i-Aswad (the Black Stone) in its proper place. Therefore it was agreed that the one who would be the first to enter into the Haram next morning should arbitrate in the quarrel. Next morning the first person who entered the Haram was Muhammad (peace be upon him). At this all the people cried out with joy, he is an absolutely trust worthy man, and we are fully satisfied with him; he is Muhammad (peace be upon him).” This is how Allah had made that large gathering of the Quraish bear witness to the fact that he was “the trustworthy” before appointing him as His Messenger (peace be upon him). Therefore there was no justification for anyone to accuse the man, who had never told a lie nor ever practiced forgery nor craftiness in his whole life, of ascribing falsely to Allah his own literary creation, and claiming categorically and persistently that it was of divine origin.

That is why Allah has asked His Messenger (peace be upon him) to refute their absurd charge by saying, as it were, only this: O my people, use your common sense before making this absurd accusation, for I am not a stranger or a foreigner among you. I have lived a life time of forty years among you before making a claim that I have received revelation from Allah. How can you expect from my past that I would present the Quran to you as Allah’s Book, without gaining knowledge from Him and without His command?” See (Surah Al-Qasas, ayat 86) note 109.

Ibn-Kathir

The tafsir of Surah Yunus verse 16 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Yunus ayat 15 which provides the complete commentary from verse 15 through 16.

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surah yunus ayat 16
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