al-Isrāʾ 17:94-96

Wa mā manaʿa'l-nāsa an yuʾminū idh jāʾahumu'l-hudā illā an qālū a-baʿatha'llāhu basharan rasūlā · Qul law kāna fi'l-arḍi malāʾikatun yamshūna muṭmaʾinnīna la-nazzalnā ʿalayhim mina'l-samāʾi malakan rasūlā · Qul kafā bi'llāhi shahīdan baynī wa baynakum, innahū kāna bi-ʿibādihi khabīran baṣīrā

"Nothing kept people from believing when the guidance came to them but their saying: 'Has God sent a mortal as messenger?' Say: 'Had there been angels walking at ease on the earth, We would have sent down to them an angel from heaven as messenger.' Say: 'God suffices as a witness between me and you. He is aware of His servants, and He sees them.'"

The verse reduces the reason for unbelief to a single sentence, and this is a finding.

And the last two words of the ninety-third verse come back here:

The same two words, in two consecutive verses, in two opposite mouths. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra, and I record this as my own reading: one says it of himself, the other puts it forward as a fault.

The same method was treated at 25/7 and 25/20 in al-Furqān (the same expression, once as a fault and once as a rule). I rely on that treatment.

The answer sets up a conditional sentence: law kāna fi'l-arḍi malāʾikatun yamshūna muṭmaʾinnīn.

The qualification must be recorded: yamshūna muṭmaʾinnīn — "walking at ease". The condition, that is, is that angels should live on earth as settled inhabitants.

I give this as my own reading, and its support is the content of the condition: the verse says that a messenger must be of the same kind as those he addresses. And no ground is given — it is laid down as a rule.

And the verb is worth recording: yamshūna (they walk). Three occurrences of this verb were tabulated at 25/7, 25/20 and 25/63 in al-Furqān (an objection, a rule, an attribute). al-Isrāʾ uses the same verb this time of angels — that is, as the measure of the comparison.

And in the thirty-seventh verse of the sūra the same verb had occurred in a prohibition: wa lā tamshi fi'l-arḍi maraḥā. The sūra uses the verb of walking in two different roles: in a prohibition and in a hypothesis.

And the dispute closes with a sentence of witness.

The pattern (kafā bi-) occurs for the fourth time in the sūra (14, 17, 65, 96) and its table was given at the fourteenth verse.

And the close is made with two names: khabīran baṣīrā — aware and seeing.

The same two names occur three times in the sūra: 17, 30, 96. And in all three with the same construction: bi-ʿibādihi khabīran baṣīrā (17, 30, 96 — at 17 bi-dhunūbi ʿibādihi).

The same construction, in three separate places in the sūra and on three separate subjects. This is a weave that can be verified within the sūra.