And when He clarified what results from the response to what they suggested regarding the descent of the Book, He informed that they proposed the appearance of the king for them. He clarified its implications. They said: If Allah were to send a messenger, it would be necessary for him to be an angel so that he would have more knowledge, greater power, and a clearer distinction from humans. Thus, the doubt regarding his message would be less. The Wise One, when He intends to achieve an important matter, it is preferable to achieve it by what is quicker in reaching it. So He said: ﴿And they said, why﴾ meaning: why not ﴿has an angel been sent down to him﴾ meaning: from the heavens, appearing to us, speaking to us, and we speak to him without him being hidden from us.

And when He mentioned their saying, pointing to their doubt, He refuted it by His saying: ﴿And if﴾ meaning: while we, if ﴿We had sent down﴾ and He omitted the tool of elevation due to the lack of need to respond to their words by mentioning it. And so that there would not be in it a consolation for them regarding what they hinted at of their denial of the descent of the angel upon him with the revelation ﴿an angel﴾ meaning: as they proposed. It cannot be that he is either in his form or not. If he were in the form that he was created in, they would not have been able to endure seeing him. And if that were the case, ﴿the matter would have been decided﴾ meaning: with their destruction. He built it for the passive to indicate the way of the speech of the capable ones to the utmost speed for the ease of the matter and the lightness of its burden. For no one among them would look at him except that he would be struck down. And if We had given them strength to endure looking at him, it would have been a decisive matter and a separation of the dispute from another angle, which is that this would be a lifting of the veil and a loss of faith in the unseen. Our custom has been to bring about destruction at that time. So they would indeed be destroyed in either of these two scenarios. This is the meaning of His saying, emphasizing the severity of it with the particle of delay: ﴿Then they will not be looked at﴾ meaning: in either of these states. And if We made him in a form they could look at, we would make him in the form of a man, for it is the most complete of forms. Then they would encounter the confusion that they encountered with your supplication, which is the meaning.