A Response to Three Questions of a Christian — Page 16
16 Such holy books can be found in hundreds of places. Now observe such usage from the Noble Quran: 1. اَهُّيَاٰۤي ُّيِبَّنلا اَذِا ُمُتْقَّلَط َءٓاَسِّنلا — O Prophet! When you people divorce women. . . ( S u rah a t - T al a q, 65:2) 2. اَهُّيَاٰۤي ُّيِبَّنلا ِقَّتا َهّٰللا َو اَل ِعِطُت َنْيِرِفٰكْلا َو َنْيِقِفٰنُمْلا١ؕ َّنِا َهّٰللا َناَك اًمْيِلَع اًمْيِكَح —O Prophet, have the fear of God, and neither follow the disbelievers nor obey the hypocrites. Verily, Allah the Exalted is Aware of all that you (addressing the general public) do. ( S u rah al-A h z a b, 33:2) 3. َو ْلَٔـْس ْنَم اَنْلَسْرَا ْنِم َكِلْبَق ْنِم ۤاَنِلُسُّر —Ask those Messengers who came before you ( S u rah az-Zukhruf, 43:46) In these places, note who is addressed by the word يا [O!] and who by ۡ طَلَّقۡتُم [you people divorce]; who is addressed by اِلٰی [to]; who appears to be addressed by the word َ تَعۡمَلُوۡن [do]; who is referred to by ۡ مَن [whoever]; and who is meant by قَبۡلِك [before you]. The Fifth Rebuttal— I concede [for the sake of argument] that َّ َتَكُوْنَن ال is in the form of nahy [prohibition], and even that nahy conveys the meaning of abandoning [an action], and even that the person addressed is the Chief and Pride of all Creation, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, and furthermore, that he is indeed the one intended to be addressed; nevertheless, I assert that ْ تَكُن َ ال is given in the form of nahy, with the ّ ن [ n u n with shadd ] added for emphasis. The emphatic ّ ن never comes for the past or the present;