In addition, with a flash of miraculousness giving news of the Unseen, it specifies one aspect those chiefs’ positions in the future.

Yes,  “of  the  Prophets”  looks  explicitly  to  the  Messenger  (Upon  whom  be blessings   and  peace),  and  the  phrase  “the  Veracious”  looks  to  Abu  Bakr  the Veracious. It also indicates that he would be second after the Messenger (Upon whom be blessings and peace) and first to succeed him, and be known by the special title of Veracious  and  be  seen  at  the  head  of  all  honest  and  upright  people.  Then  “the Witnesses [or Martyrs]” refers to ‘Umar,  ‘Uthman, and ‘Ali (May God be pleased with all of them) together. It intimates that the three  of them would succeed to the Caliphate after the Veracious One, and that the three of them would be martyred and the merits of martyrdom added to their other virtues.

“The Righteous” alludes to distinguished persons like the Companions of the Bench, and of Badr and Ridwan. While with its explicit meaning, “And how goodly a company are these!” encourages others to follow them, and with its implicit meaning, by showing the  generation that succeeded them to be honoured and illustrious, it alludes to Hasan (May God be pleased with him), who as the fifth Caliph affirmed the

Hadith “After me the Caliphate will last thirty years”1  – in order to show its great value despite its brief duration.

I n  S h o r t : Similarly to the verses at the end of Sura al-Fath, which look to the four Rightly-Guided Caliphs, affirming them, these verses look in part and allusively to their future positions in a way that gives news of the Unseen. Flashes of this sort of miraculousness, the  disclosing of facts about the Unseen, which is one sort of the Qur’an’s miraculousness, are  so numerous as to be incalculable. Literalist scholars limit them to forty or fifty verses because of their superficial view, but in reality they number more than a thousand.  Sometimes  a single verse has four or five aspects giving news of the Unseen.

O our Sustainer! Do not take us to task if we forget or do wrong.(2:286)

Glory be unto You! We have no knowledge save that which You have taught us; indeed You are All-Knowing, All-Wise.(2:32)

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1   al-Munawi, Fayd al-Qadir, iii, 509; Ibn ‘Abd al-Barr, al-Tamhid, viii, 67. See also, Tirmidhi, Fitan, 48; Musnad v, 220. 221; al-‘Albani, Sahih Jami‘ al-Saghir, no: 3336.