And when the decree was: And you were not among the people of that present time (p-304) for that matter, and your life extended to this time until you were informed of what you were present for, he corrected the opposite of that and said: ﴿But we﴾ meaning: by what we have of greatness ﴿created﴾ meaning: after we destroyed the people of that time who knew these matters by witnessing and reporting, all of them ﴿generations﴾ meaning: we did not delay anyone from the people of that time, but we destroyed them and created after them many generations ﴿and time passed﴾ with its duration and elevation ﴿upon them the age﴾ greatly by a gradual passage of time little by little, so that news was forgotten, and what remained of it was altered by the monks and the scholars, especially in the time of the interval. Therefore, it was necessary in our wisdom to send you, so we sent you to establish the clear path, and the proof would be established by you. It was known that your informing about this while you had not witnessed it nor learned it from a creature, is only from Us and by Our revelation.

And when he negated the knowledge of that by the way of witnessing, he negated the cause of knowledge of that and said: ﴿And you were not residing﴾ meaning: staying for a long time with permanence in Midian ﴿among the people of Midian﴾ meaning: the people of Shu'ayb, blessings be upon him ﴿reciting﴾ meaning: reading as a means of narrating the truths and news ﴿to them Our great signs﴾, so that you would be among those who care about the matters of revelation and become acquainted with the precise news of it, thus their news and the news of Musa, blessings and peace be upon him, with them and his news after parting from them (p-305) would be your affair, due to the strong inclination you had at that time to know it ﴿But we were﴾ meaning: an eternal and everlasting existence we attribute to all times by what we have of greatness, equally ﴿sending﴾ meaning: we have the attribute of power to send, so we sent to every prophet in his time, then we sent to you in this time with their news and the news of others, to spread it among the people, clear in explanation and free from confusion, because we were witnesses to all of that, nothing of it was absent from us nor was it except by Our command.