The Angels
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE
[35:24]
Verily, We have sent thee with the truth, as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner: for there never was any community but a warner has [lived and] passed away in its midst.


* v.24 : One of the meanings of the term ummah (preferred by Zamakhsharī in his commentary on the above verse) is “people of one time” or “age”; another, “people of one kind,” i.e., “a nation” or “a community” (which is adopted by me in this context). Taking into consideration a third, well-established meaning, namely, “a [particular] way of life” or “of behaviour” (Jawharī), the term “community” comes, in this instance, close to the modern concept of “civilization” in its historical sense. – The stress on the warners’ (i.e., prophets) having “passed away” is meant to emphasize the humanness and mortality of each and all of them.