Transliteration:( Wa qaaloo law laaa unzila alaihi malakunw wa law anzalna malakal laqudiyal amru summa laa yunzaroon )
16. Whom we could see, otherwise not one, but many angels would come down to the Holy Prophet صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم at times they would come in human form whom the Noble Companions would also see. These infidels had demanded that these angels should come in their original form and they should then see them in that form.
17. "Have been finished" means they should have been destroyed, or for the reason that they were unable to see the angels, if they had seen them they would have died; or after asking for the miracle had they not brought faith, divine punishment would have come upon them. The first reason is stronger because Abu Jahl had seen many miracles for rejecting them. demanded by him yet had not died.
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The tafsir of Surah Al-Anam verse 8 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Anam ayat 7 which provides the complete commentary from verse 7 through 11.
(6:8) They also say: ‘Why has no angel been sent down to this Prophet?’[5] Had We sent down an angel, the matter would surely have long been decided and no respite would have been granted them.[6]
5. The unbelievers were saying that if Muhammed (peace be on him) had indeed been endowed with prophethood, an angel should have been sent down from heaven to announce that he was the Messenger of God, and that that people would be punished if they did not follow his directives. It was atonishing to these ignorant objectors that the Creator of the heavens and the earth should appoint someone as His Messenger and then leave him without protection against the physical hurts and insults that were flung at him. They would have expected the envoy of a Sovereign as great as the Creator of the universe to be accomplied by at least some heavenly constable, if not a large retinue, to protect him!
6. The unbelievers’ objection is refuted by this remark. it warns them that the time available for accepting the true faith and bringing about the required reform in their lives will last only as long as Ultimate Reality remains concealed from human perception by the wheel of the Unseen. Once that wheel is removed, there will be no more respite: the summons to God’s rekoning will have come. This earthly life is a test of whether a man is able to recognize the Ultimate Reality – even though it lies hidden from his sence perception – by the correct excecise of his reason and intelect and of whether, having once recognized it, he is able to behave in conformity with that Reality by exercising control over his animal self and its lusts. This test necessarily requires that the Reality should remain concealed. Thereafter man will be confronted with the result of the test rather than by any further test. Until God has decided to bring the term of their test to a close, it is not possible to respond to such requests by sending angels to them in their true form. For further details see (Surah Al-Baqarah, ayat 210) note 228.
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