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A Guide for Every People
وَيَقُولُ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ لَوْلَآ أُنزِلَ عَلَيْهِ ءَايَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِۦٓ ۗ إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مُنذِرٌ ۖ وَلِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ هَادٍ
(13:7) The faithless say, ‘Why has not some sign been sent down to him from his Lord?’ You are only a warner, and there is a guide for every people.
The question
“You are only a warner, and there is a guide for every people” — who is the guide, and does the earth ever lack one?
Views answered: the reading that the warner is the Prophet and the guide is ʿAlī by the wording of the verse itself
Al-Mizan's argument
The faithless demanded a sign other than the Qur'an. The verse answers that the Prophet is only a warner, and that every people has a guide — so the earth is never without one who leads people to the truth by God's command, whether a prophet who warns or another guide. In the narrations, reported widely in both Shīʿī and Sunnī sources, the Prophet says, “I am the warner and ʿAlī is the guide.” Al-Mizan explains that this does not mean the verse's “warner” is the Prophet and its “guide” is ʿAlī by its wording — that would contradict the verse — but that the Prophet is the instance of the warner (guidance with a claim of prophethood) and ʿAlī the instance of the guide without prophethood, the Imam; the verse applies to him, and to the Imams after him, by jarī.
Reading guide
Each part opens the commentary at that point.