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I.e., a prophet like himself. The "witness" spoken of here is evidently Moses: cf. the two Biblical passages relating to the advent of the Prophet Muhammad (Deuteronomy xviii, 15 and 18): "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me"; and "I will raise them up a prophet from among thy brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in his mouth." (See in this connection note [33] on 2:42 .)
This refers to ’Abdullâh ibn Salâm, a Jewish scholar, who embraced Islam when the Prophet (ﷺ) emigrated to Medina.
Another side of the argument is now presented. 'You pagan Arabs! You are puffed up with pride, though you are an ignorant nation. Among Israel there are men who understand the previous scriptures, and who find in the Qur-an and its Preacher a true confirmation of the previous scriptures. They accept Islam as a fulfilment of the revelation of Moses himself! (See Deut. xviii. 18-19). And yet you hold back, though the Qur-an has come in your own language, in order to help you to understand. How unjust and how shameful! In that case, with what face can you seek guidance from Allah?'
There were learned Jews (and Christians) who saw in the holy Prophet the Messenger of Allah foreshadowed in previous Revelations, and accepted Islam. As this is a Makkan Sura we need not construe this as a reference to Abdullah ibn Salam, whose conversion was in Madinah only two years before the Prophet's death, unless we accept this particular verse to be so late in date. The sincere Jews were in a position to understand how this Revelation fitted in with all they had learnt about Revelation.