Transliteration:( Wa qaalal mala-u min qawmihil lazeena kafaroo wa kazzaboo bi liqaaa'il Aakhirati wa atrafnaahum fil hayaatid dunyaa maa haazaaa illaa basharum mislukum yaakulu mimmaa taakuloona minhu wa yashrabu mimmaa tashraboon )
"And the chiefs of those people who disbelieved [52] and belied the presence of the Hereafter and who We gave comfort in the life of the world and said, 'He is not but a man [53] like you,' he eats of what you eat and drinks what you drink [54]."
This shows that those with wealth, status, and worldly honour have often been the foremost opponents of Prophets. In contrast, the poor and humble have usually been the ones to accept the truth and carry the mission of faith. Even today, it is mostly the less privileged who dedicate themselves to religious service.
Labeling Prophets as ordinary men by judging their external actions—like eating and drinking—is a tactic of disbelievers. This began with Iblis, who refused to recognise the hidden excellence of Prophets, and was continued by disbelievers. True believers, like Hazrat Abu Bakr Siddique (رضي الله عنه), looked beyond the outward human form and perceived the divine light within—unlike Abu Jahl, who saw only the external shell and rejected the truth.
The disbelievers questioned, "If he eats and drinks like us, how can he be a Prophet?" They missed the essential difference: their eating was based on heedlessness, while the nourishment of Prophets was a source of divine light. Just as the honeybee and wasp draw from the same flower but produce different results, similarly, the acts of Prophets—even eating and drinking—are infused with spirituality, unlike that of ordinary people.
The tafsir of Surah Al-Muminun verse 33 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Muminun ayat 31 which provides the complete commentary from verse 31 through 41.
(23:33) The notables among his people who had refused to believe and who denied the meeting of the Hereafter, and those whom We had endowed with ease and comfort in this life,[35] cried out: “This is no other than a mortal like yourselves who eats what you eat and drinks what you drink.
35. It should be noted that all those people who opposed the Messengers had three common characteristics: (1) They were the chiefs of their people. (2) They denied life in the Hereafter. (3) They were prosperous in the worldly life. Obviously, they loved the life of this world and could never conceive that their way of life, which had made them chiefs and brought prosperity, could ever be wrong. Therefore they opposed their Messengers, who took away their peace of mind, by preaching that there was a life-after-death and they shall have to render an account to Allah of what they did in this world. And this was exactly what was happening at Makkah.
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