Commentary
The word, "fatrah" in: عَلَىٰ فَتْرَةٍ مِّنَ الرُّسُلِ (after a gap between Messengers) literally means to slacken, to become dormant or to suspend or to terminate an activity. Leading authorities in Tafsir have given this very meaning of fatrah in this verse. It signifies the suspension of the coming of prophets for a certain interval of time which is the period of time in between Sayyidna ` Isa and the Last of the Prophets, Sayyidna Muhammad al-Mustafa ﷺ .
Verification of the Gap
According to Sayyidna ` Abdullah ibn ` Abbas ؓ there is a period of one thousand and seven hundred years between Sayyidna Musa and Sayyidna ` Isa (علیہم السلام) . During this whole period, prophets kept coming with their missions without any gap. To Bani Isra'il alone, one thousand prophets were sent during this period - not included in which are prophets who appeared among peoples other than Bani Isra'il. Then comes the period of only five hundred years between the birth of Sayyidna (علیہ السلام) and the appearance of the Holy Prophet ﷺ as the Last Prophet. During this period, the usual chain of prophets remained discontinued. Therefore, this period is known as Fatrah or Gap. Before this, a longer period has never remained unvisited by prophets. (Qurtubi, with some explanation from the author)
There are other reports regarding the period of time between Sayyidna Musa and Sayyidna ` Isa (علیہم السلام) ، and that which is between Sayyidna ` Isa (علیہ السلام) and the Last Prophet, Sayyidna Muhammad al-Mustafa ﷺ . The period of time indicated in these reports is either more, or less, but that does not affect the real purpose.
Imam a1-Bukhari (رح) reports on the authority of Sayyidna Salman al-Farisi ؓ عنہ that there was a period of six hundred years between the time of Sayyidna ` Isa (علیہ السلام) and the Last among Prophets ﷺ .
During this entire period, no prophet was sent as confirmed by a Hadith in Mishkat, appearing there with reference to the Sahibs of al-Bukhari and Muslim, which reports that the Holy Prophet ﷺ said: اَنا اَولَی النَّاس بِعِیسٰی that is, ` Among people, I am the closest to ` Isa.' He explained the meaning of his remark later in the Hadith when he said: لیسَ بَیننَا نَبِیُّ that is, ` No prophet was sent between the two of us.'
As for the three messengers mentioned in Surah Ya Sin (36), they were messengers sent by Sayyidna ` Isa (علیہ السلام) who have been' called messengers (bearers of a message) in the literal sense.
About the appearance of Khalid ibn Sinan al-` Arabi during this gap as reported by some chroniclers, Tafsir Ruh al-Ma'ani says with reference to Shihab that his being a prophet is correct, but the period in which he came was earlier than Sayyidna ` Isa, (علیہ السلام) not after him.
Rulings concerning the Gap
Obviously, the verse seems to indicate the fate of the group of people who were not visited by any messenger or prophet or their deputies, nor did they have the religious laws of past prophets preserved with them; such people will be considered excusable and will deserve no punishment on the condition that such people should have not committed Shirk, the grave sin of ascribing partners in the Divinity of Allah. Therefore, Muslim jurists differ about rulings which apply to the people of Fatrah (gap), particularly about whether or not they will be forgiven.
The majority tilts towards the hope that they will be forgiven if they had kept adhering to the religion which had survived with them as originating from Sayyidna Musa or Sayyidna 'Isa (علیہم السلام) irrespective of its authenticity - again, subject to the condition that they had not been hostile to the principle of Tauhid, the Oneness of Allah, and had nothing to do with the practice of Shirk. The reason is that the Principle of Tauhid needs no reported proof. Any human being who ponders over it could himself reason it out.
A Question and its Answer
A question may arise here that the Jews and Christians, the people of the Book, who are being addressed in this verse did have the Torah and the Evangel and their sages and scholars with them even if no messengers reached them during this gap. How then could they come up with the excuse on the Day of Judgment that they had received no guidance? The answer is that by the time of the Holy Prophet ﷺ the original Torah and the Evangel had gone extinct. There were alterations in texts and additions of false narratives. Thus, the availability of non-original scriptures were no better than its extinction. The likelihood of an original manuscript surviving at some unknown place with someone would not be contrary to the assertion made. In fact, some scholars including Ibn Taymiyyah have written that the original copies of the Torah and Evangile were present at some places.
The Unique Perfection of the Last among Prophets ﷺ
When, by addressing the people of the Book in this verse, it was said that ` Our Messenger, Muhammad al-Mustafa ﷺ has come after a long gap,' there emerges a subtle hint towards the need that people who have been honoured with his presence among them should consider this as a matchless blessing and a supreme asset because the line of prophets had remained suspended since a long time and it has been opened for them once again.
Yet another indication given here is towards the fact that the world has been blessed with his presence in an age and at a place which lacked the light of knowledge and faith. The creation of God had lost its link with God only to be immersed in the worship of self-made idols. In the backdrop of a time such as this, the mission of reviving a people so lost was no easy task. This time was the notorious Jahiliyyah, commonly identified as the Age of Ignorance, and the people from it who were entrusted with the Prophet of Islam were spoiled, self-centered and uncompromising. Yet, such was the bliss of his company and so bracing was the light of his mission that this very set of people became, in a very short time, role models and teachers for the whole world in all departments of life - in knowledge, deed, morals, dealings, social living, to name only a few. This, then, becomes a widely witnessed and authentically verified proof that he was a Prophet and Messenger of Allah and that his prophetic teachings were the most effective and the most surpassing among those coming from all past prophets. Imagine the mission of a physician who treats a hopeless patient and does it at a place which lacks medical instruments, and medicines too, yet he succeeds in his effort to treat the patient to the limit that this patient, not simply that he rises from his death-bed to be-come a healthy person, but that he goes way ahead and himself turns into an expert physician and healer as well - if so, who can doubt the perfection of the master healer!
With this in view, we can see that following the long gap when disbelief in and disobedience to God reigned supreme everywhere, his teaching and training spread out the kind of universal light which re-mains unparalleled by any age previous to it. In short, out of all miracles, this one miracle alone could compel human beings to have faith in him.
