يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلرُّسُلُ كُلُوا۟ مِنَ ٱلطَّيِّبَٰتِ وَٱعْمَلُوا۟ صَٰلِحًا إِنِّى بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ عَلِيمٌ
The sentence addresses a plural: yā ayyuha'l-rusul — "messengers". And this is the only address in the Qurʾān directed to the messengers collectively.
| # | View | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | All the messengers — a common command spoken to each in his own time | The plural address |
| 2 | A single messenger (the one in the setting) — the plural for honour or for generalisation | The preceding verses naming the messengers one by one |
| 3 | The communities, by way of the messengers — the address is to the messengers, the ruling is general | The content of the command applying to everyone |
The word order must be recorded: kulū (eat) comes first, wa'ʿmalū ṣāliḥā (do righteous deeds) second.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the sūra's own text: in the thirty-third verse the expression the other side used in objecting to the messenger was exactly this — yaʾkulu mimmā taʾkulūna minh. The act of eating was counted a defect there.
Eighteen verses later the same verb becomes the first word of a command directed at all the messengers.
| Verse | Who says it | Verb | Its office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 33 | The objectors | yaʾkulu mimmā taʾkulūna minh | A defect — the proof that refutes the claim to be a messenger |
| 51 | The text | kulū mina'l-ṭayyibāt | A command — the order given to the messengers |
And the same method was treated between al-Furqān 25/7 and 25/20. What was recorded there holds here too:
The answer does not reject the description in the objection — it confirms it and generalises it. Not "it is not so", that is, but "it always was so".
| al-Furqān 25/7 → 25/20 | al-Muʾminūn 23/33 → 23/51 | |
|---|---|---|
| The objection | yaʾkulu'l-ṭaʿāma wa yamshī fi'l-aswāq | yaʾkulu mimmā taʾkulūna minh |
| The mood of the answer | Report — la-yaʾkulūna'l-ṭaʿām (it always was so) | Command — kulū (do it thus) |
| The distance between | 13 verses | 18 verses |
| Whom the answer addresses | The objectors | The messengers |
The difference is worth recording, and I give this as my own reading: al-Furqān meets the objection with a report — "the messengers were always like this". al-Muʾminūn turns the same verb into a command — "eat". One is a defence, then, the other an order.
The root ط-ي-ب: to be pleasant, to be clean, to be good. Ṭayyib — pleasant, clean, lawful. The root was treated at al-Baqara 2/168 and 2/172 (kulū min ṭayyibāti mā razaqnākum).
And there is an overlap that must be recorded: al-Baqara 2/172 directs the same command to those who believe; this verse directs the same command to the messengers.
| Place | Addressee | Command |
|---|---|---|
| al-Baqara 2/172 | yā ayyuha'lladhīna āmanū | kulū min ṭayyibāti mā razaqnākum |
| al-Muʾminūn 23/51 | yā ayyuha'l-rusul | kulū mina'l-ṭayyibāt |
The same command, to two different addressees. This is an overlap that can be verified from the two texts, and I record it as an observation: on this item no difference is set between the messenger and the believer.
Ṣāliḥ — root ص-ل-ح: to be unspoiled, to be sound and serviceable. Iṣlāḥ — putting right; ṣulḥ — the repairing of what is broken. The word has occurred in many places across this series.
And the word order must be recorded: ṣāliḥan is indefinite — "a righteous (deed)". Not definite. The command, that is, does not give a list.
إِنِّى بِمَا تَعْمَلُونَ عَلِيمٌ — the close of the sentence is attached to the deed, not to the eating. And bimā taʿmalūna has been brought forward (taqdīm): "what you do — I know."