"And for every people is a guide" (Ar-Ra'd 7): how Sunni and Shia scholars read it

The verse in Surah Ar-Ra'd where God tells His prophet "you are only a warner", and the one point at issue: who is the guide in every people? Each tradition quoted from a work this site serves, agreements before disagreements, and no adjudication.

The verse

﴿وَيَقُولُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ لَوۡلَآ أُنزِلَ عَلَيۡهِ ءَايَةٞ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦٓۗ إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مُنذِرٞۖ وَلِكُلِّ قَوۡمٍ هَادٍ﴾

And those who disbelieved say, "Why has a sign not been sent down to him from his Lord?" You are only a warner, and for every people is a guide.

Ar-Ra'd 7

The verse has two halves: a report of what the disbelievers said, demanding a perceptible sign, and then an answer addressed to the Prophet in two short sentences — "you are only a warner" and "and for every people is a guide."

The single point at issue between the two traditions is this: who is meant by the guide in the second sentence? The messenger sent to each community, or a guide among every people other than the prophet?

This article quotes each tradition from a work this site itself serves, in its own words, rather than characterising anyone's view. It adjudicates nothing.

The context

The verse sits early in Surah Ar-Ra'd, in the middle of an argument against the idolaters. Before it:

They impatiently urge you to bring about evil before good, while there has already occurred before them similar punishments [to what they demand]. And indeed, your Lord is full of forgiveness for the people despite their wrongdoing, and indeed, your Lord is severe in penalty.

Ar-Ra'd 6

And after it, two verses on the all-encompassing knowledge of God:

Allah knows what every female carries and what the wombs lose [prematurely] or exceed. And everything with Him is by due measure. [He is] Knower of the unseen and the witnessed, the Grand, the Exalted.

Ar-Ra'd 8 — 9

So the setting is knowledge, power and warning. What they demanded was a "sign" — a perceptible miracle of the kind earlier prophets were given. The answer does not grant their demand; it defines the Prophet's function and states a general pattern instead.

Another verse of the same surah has its own article: Ar-Ra'd 13:11: what "Allah will not change a people" actually says.

What the wording does

"You are only a warner" — a restriction: his function is to warn, not to produce signs. And it is addressed to the Prophet, not to them.
"And for every people is a guide" — an independent sentence with the predicate placed first: "for every people". The subject, "a guide", is indefinite and is not identified by the wording.
The wording does not say "and for every people is a messenger", nor "a prophet". It says "a guide".
"People" is indefinite too, so the sentence is general about every people, not about one in particular.

That open wording is where the discussion begins: a general term for the guide and the guided, with each tradition naming what it applies to.

How the Sunni tradition reads it

At-Tafsir al-Muyassar, issued by the King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Quran, reads the verse as a whole: the disbelievers of Mecca say, why has a perceptible miracle not come to him, like the staff of Moses or the she-camel of Salih? That is not in your hand, Messenger; you are only one who conveys to them and warns them of God's might. And every community has a messenger who directs them to God.

On that reading the guide in every people is the prophet sent to them, Muhammad is the guide for his own people, and his function is warning and conveying — not producing miracles on demand.

How the Shia tradition reads it

Al-Fayd al-Kashani, in Tafsir as-Safi, begins from the wording itself and glosses both sentences. On the first: "you are only a warner" — sent to warn, like other messengers before you; nothing is required of you but to bring what establishes that you are a messenger, one who warns and cautions; and all signs are equal in achieving that purpose.

On the second: "and for every people is a guide" — one who guides them to the religion and calls them to God in some manner of guidance, and with a sign particular to him.

He then relays, for what the guide applies to, a report: when this verse was revealed the Messenger of God said, "I am the warner and Ali is the guide after me; by you, Ali, the guided will be guided." And from Al-Kafi, from al-Baqir: the Messenger of God is the warner, and in every age there is from us a guide who guides them to what the prophet of God brought; then the guides after him. And from as-Sadiq: every imam is a guide for the generation he is among — and as-Safi notes that this meaning is related by al-Qummi, al-Ayyashi and more than one narrator "from both the Shia and the wider community".

Al-Allamah at-Tabataba'i, in Tafsir al-Mizan, starts from the apparent sense of the wording and draws a general pattern from it: you are only a guide who guides them by way of warning, and God's way with His servants has been to raise up in every people a guide who guides them. The verse, he says, shows that the earth is never without a guide who guides people to the truth — either a prophet who warns, or another guide who guides by God's command.

He then takes up the report itself and states it in a way that keeps the wording general: the meaning of "I am the warner and Ali is the guide" is that he is an instance of the warner — warning being guidance together with a summons — and Ali an instance of the guide without the summons, which is the imam; not that "the warner" means the Messenger alone and "the guide" means Ali alone, for that, he says, plainly contradicts the apparent sense of the verse.

Al-Mizan closes its treatment with further reports to the same effect from Al-Kafi, Al-Ma'ani, Al-Basa'ir, al-Ayyashi and al-Qummi, and notes that it is also related through Sunni chains — naming among them Ad-Durr al-Manthur, ath-Tha'labi and the Mustadrak of al-Hakim.

(The tafsir passages are rendered here in our own English. The Arabic version of this article quotes all three works verbatim.)

Where the two agree

The verse does not grant the idolaters what they asked for: producing signs is not in the Prophet's hand.
"You are only a warner" restricts the Prophet's function to warning. All three works read it so.
Guidance in the verse is a continuing pattern, not a single event: for every people, a guide.
"A guide" is indefinite and general; all three agree the wording does not identify it, and each names what it applies to.
The verse implies the earth is not left without a guide — al-Muyassar in the form "every community has a messenger", al-Mizan in those words.
The reports in this matter are found in the books of both traditions; al-Mizan itself states that they are related through Sunni chains as well.

Where they differ

What "a guide" refers to. Al-Muyassar: the messenger of each community, so the guide is the prophet sent to them. As-Safi: whoever guides them to the religion and calls them to God — and then names, for what it applies to, what is reported from the People of the House. Al-Mizan: "either a prophet who warns, or another guide who guides by God's command" — widening the application beyond the prophet.
Whether guidance continues after the Prophet. As-Safi relays from al-Baqir "and in every age there is from us a guide", and orders the guides after him. Al-Muyassar does not treat what comes after the Prophet in this verse. Al-Mizan makes the earth's never being without a guide a meaning of the verse itself.
Where the report stands relative to the wording. As-Safi puts the report forward to identify the referent. Al-Mizan puts the apparent sense first and treats the report as an application, stating explicitly that confining the wording to two individuals contradicts its apparent sense. Al-Muyassar does not cite the report here.
What "people" means. Al-Muyassar reads it as a community with a messenger. As-Safi and al-Mizan read it as a people in an age, so that each age has its guide.

These are the texts of the works as they stand in their books. Weighing between them is not the business of this page.

What the verse does not say

It does not name the guide; the wording is indefinite in both places.
It gives no number of guides, no description of them, and no method of identifying them.
It does not deny the Prophet guidance in the sense of showing the way and calling to it; it restricts his function to warning, in answer to their demand for a sign.
It does not address what kind of "sign" they demanded, and promises none.

Sources

At-Tafsir al-Muyassar — a panel of scholars, King Fahd Complex for the Printing of the Quran.
Tafsir as-Safi — al-Fayd al-Kashani.
Tafsir al-Mizan — Sayyid Muhammad Husayn at-Tabataba'i.

All three texts in full, each attributed to its author, are on the verse's own page:

Tafsir of "And for every people is a guide"