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qul law shāʾa llāhu mā talawtuhū ʿalaykum wa-lā ʾadrākum bihī fa-qad labithtu fīkum ʿumuran min qablihī ʾa-fa-lā taʿqilūna
Say, ‘Had Allah [so] wished, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you, for I have dwelled among you for a lifetime before it. Do you not exercise your reason?’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Yunus – Verse 16
16. “Say: ‘Had Allah so willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have taught it to you. Indeed I have lived amongst you a lifetime before it. Have you then no sense?’”
In this verse the Qur’an brings a reason for the Divine order by commanding the Prophet to say that his ideas do not have the slightest role in this Holy Book, and had Allah wanted, he would not have read the Qur’an to them and they would not have been made aware of it. The verse says:
“Say: ‘Had Allah so willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have taught it to you...”
I have lived among you a long time before this. It provides reason for what I claim, for you have never heard me saying such things before. If the verses had come from me, you should have heard me saying them during the past forty years as they would have been at the tip of my tongue, or at least parts of it might have been heard by someone in the past. How can you not notice such an obvious matter? The verse continues saying:
“…Indeed I have lived amongst you a lifetime before it. Have you then no sense?’”