(Say) O Muhammad: (If Allah had so willed) i.e. for me not to be a Messenger (I should not have recited it to you) I should not have recited the Qur'an to you (nor would He have made it known to you) and He would not have made the Qur'an known to you. (I dwelt among you a whole lifetime) 40 years (before it) before the revelation of the Qur'an, and before that I never said anything. (Have ye then no sense?) do you not have the sense to understand that it is not of my accord?