Wama kunta bijanibi attoori ith nadayna walakin rahmatan min rabbika litunthira qawman (surah Qasas: 46)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(28:46) You were also not present among the Midianites that you might have recited to them Our Revelations, *63 but it is We Who are sending to you (this news of that time). And you were also not present at the side of Tur when We had called out (to Moses for the first time), but this is your Lord's Mercy (that you are being given this information *64 so that you should warn those to whom no warner had come before you: *65 may be they take heed.

Wa maa kunta bijaanibit Toori iz naadainaa wa laakir rahmatam mir Rabbika litunzira qawmam maaa ataahum min nazeerim min qablika la`allahum yatazakkaroon

*63) That is, "You did not exist at the time when the Prophet Moses reached Midian, passed ten years of his life there, and then left for Egypt. You were not preaching in the habitations of Midian that which you are preaching in the streets of Makkah. You are not relating those events as an eye-witness, but because you have been given the knowledge of these by Us through Revelation."
*64) These things have been presented as a proof of the Holy Prophet's Prophethood. At the time when these were cued all the chiefs of Makkah and the common disbelievers were bent upon somehow proving him as a non-prophet, and, God forbid, a false claimant to Prophethood. To help and assist them in their campaign there were the Jewish scholars and the Christian monks also, who were living in the habitations of the Hijaz. Besides, the Holy Prophet Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him) had not appeared all of a sudden from somewhere and started reciting the Qur'an to the people, but he was a resident of the same city of Makkah, and no aspect of his life was hidden from the people of his city and clan. That is why when these three things were presented like an open challenge as a proof of his Prophethood, not a single person from Makkah and Hijaz and the entire land of Arabia could stand up to say the absurd thing which the modern orientalists say, although those people were no less . efficient in fabricating falsehood than these so-called scholars. But how could they utter an unprofitable lie that could not survive for a single moment? How could they say, "O Muhammad, you have attained this information from such and such a Jewish scholar and a Christian monk?" For, this purpose, they could not mention any name in the entire land. For whatever name they mentioned, it would become manifest there and then that the Holy Prophet had not obtained any information from him. How could they say, "O Muhammad, you possess a full-fledged library containing aII sorts of books an ancient history and sciences and literature, from which you take help to prepare all your discourses?"' For not to speak of a library, no one could seize even a scrap of paper from his house containing such information. Everyone in Makkah knew that Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him) was un-lettered and no one could also say that he had had some translators at his disposal, who supplied him with translations from Hebrew and Assyrian and Greek books. Then, none of them could be so shameless as to dare claim that he had obtained this information during the trade journeys to Syria and Palestine, for he had not performed those journeys alone, but had travelled in company with trade caravans of Makkah. Had somebody made any such assertion, hundreds of living witnesses would have refuted this and testified that he had received no such instruction from anyone there. Then, within two years of the Holy Prophet's death war had started between the Romans and the Muslims. If he had any son of discussion anywhere in Syria and Palestine with any Christian monk or Jewish rabbi, the Roman Empire would not have hesitated to launch a propaganda campaign, saying, that Muhammad (peace be upon him), God forbid, had learnt everything from them and gone back to Makkah and proclaimed himself a Prophet. In short, at that time when the challenge of the Qur'an was the knell of the disbelieving Quraish and the polytheists and the need of those people to refute it was far greater then of the modern orientalists, no one could discover any material by which he could prove that the Holy Prophet Muhammad (upon whom be Allah's peace) had some other means than Revelation for obtaining that information .
One should also know that the Qur'an has not given this challenge only here, but at several other places also in connection with different stories. After narrating the story of the Prophet Zacharias and Mary, it was said: "These are of the 'unseen' things We are revealing to you: you were not present there when the priests of the Temple were casting lots by throwing their quills to decide which of them should be the guardian of Mary: nor were you there with them when they were arguing about it." (Al-i-`Imran: 44) At the end of the Prophet Joseph's story it was said: "This story which We are revealing to you is of those things that were not known to you: for you were not with the brothers (of Joseph), when they had conspired together a plot against Joseph." (Yusuf: 102) Similarly, after relating the full story of the Prophet Noah, it was said: "These are some of the tidings of the `unseen' which We are revealing to you. You did not know these before nor did your people." (Hud: 49) That this thing has been reiterated several times shows that this was one of the main arguments that the Qur'an gave to prove its being Allah's Word and the Holy Prophet's being a Messenger of Allah. For there was no perceptible means of knowledge available to the Holy Prophet who was an unlettered person, apart from Revelation, through which he could narrate so accurately the events that had happened hundreds and thousands of years in the past. And this was one of the important reasons why the contemporaries of the Holy prophet were coming to believe, in larger and still larger numbers, that he was really a Prophet of Allah and received Allah's Revelations. Now one can easily imagine how important it must have been for the opponents of the Islamic movement at that time to meet this challenge, and what efforts they must have made to collect arguments and proofs against it. One can also see that if, God forbid, there was the slightest weakness. in this challenge, it would not have been at all difficult for the contemporary people to provide evidence for its refutation.
*65) No prophet had been born especially in Arabia after the Prophets Ishmael and Shu`aib (peace be upon them both), during the past two thousand years or so,, though teachings of the Prophets like Moses and Solomon and Jesus (peace be upon all of them) had reached the people of that land.