who descended with God’s speech upon Muhammad’s heart, may God bless him and grant him peace. This is His saying, “Or by sending a messenger,” meaning to that human being, “who reveals” to him “by His permission what” God, exalted is He, “wills” from what He commands him to reveal to him.
His saying, “Except through revelation,” means here inspiration accompanied by a sign through which he knows that his Lord has spoken to him, so that the matter is not confused for him.
“Or from behind a veil” means His making him hear it through the veil of separated letters and sounds, as the Bedouin heard the recited Qurʾan, which is God’s speech; or also the veil of the listener’s ears; or the veil of his humanity without qualification. He speaks to him in things, as He spoke to Moses “from the right side of the valley … in the blessed spot, from the tree: Moses, I am God” [al-Qasas 28:30].
(Self-Disclosure in the Form of Need)
Limitation thus occurred through direction and the specification of a spot, because he was occupied with seeking the fire his humanity required. He was called from within his need because of his dependence upon it. God has told us that people are in need of God. In this verse God therefore named Himself by the name of everything needed, through divine jealousy that need should be directed toward anyone other than God.
God disclosed Himself to him in the very form of his need. When he came to it, He called to him from it. In reality his need was therefore for God, while the veil lay in the form in which the self-disclosure occurred. Had He not called to him (God, from the very thing he needed), he would not have known Him (Moses, in the reality of His call). A divine self-disclosure of this kind occurs in the Hereafter and meets with denial.
His saying, “He is High,” means knowing what is required by the ranks He has mentioned and assigning them their places. His saying,
Notes
Translator’s note TN3573-1: The source’s parenthetical clarifications identify God as calling from the very thing needed and Moses as recognizing Him in the reality of the call. The compressed syntax is retained with those subjects explained. It then glosses ʿalī, “High,” through ʿalīm, “knowing”; this is preserved as the author’s explanation rather than replacing the quoted divine name.
