The People of the Reminder

Qur'an 16:43 · Al-Naḥl

وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ إِلَّا رِجَالًا نُّوحِىٓ إِلَيْهِمْ ۚ فَسْـَٔلُوٓا۟ أَهْلَ ٱلذِّكْرِ إِن كُنتُمْ لَا تَعْلَمُونَ

(16:43) We did not send [any apostles] before you except as men to whom We revealed. Ask the People of the Reminder if you do not know.

The question

“So ask the people of the reminder (ahl al-dhikr) if you do not know” — who are the people of the reminder: the People of the Book, the followers of the Qur'an, or the Prophet's Household?

Views answered: the view that it means anyone versed in past history, the view that it means all the followers of the Qur'an

Al-Mizan's argument

In its context the verse answers the polytheists who denied that a human being could be a messenger: they are told to ask the people of the reminder — the People of the Book, whose scriptures are also called “reminder” — whether the earlier messengers were not men. Al-Mizan sets aside the view that the phrase means anyone who knows the history of past nations, and shows that the view that it means all followers of the Qur'an does not suit the argument with the polytheists, who did not accept the Qur'an. Taken on its own, apart from this context, the verse states a general rule: whoever does not know should ask those who know. The narrations from the Imams explain the people of the reminder as the Prophet's Household — the Qur'an is the reminder and they are its people — and al-Mizan explains that they do so by taking the verse on its own, not in its specific context, which is why the narrations never mention that context; he also answers an objection to this.

Reading guide

Each part opens the commentary at that point.

Read the whole commentary on 16:43 →

The People of the Reminder ​

The question ​

Al-Mizan's argument ​

Reading guide ​

The People of the Reminder

The question

Al-Mizan's argument

Reading guide