25.20 – We have not sent any of the envoys before you, except that they indeed ate food
The Quran makes many categorical statements about prophets and messengers (heremursalūn) in the style of this verse. The statement that all messengers eat food seems to be a response to the question of the audience in verse 7.
That pre-Islamic messengers and prophets ate food and walked in the markets is not in dispute. However, many other quranic statements warrant comparison to messengers and prophets as the Bible portrays them. Among the more straightforward statements are that Allah sent all envoys as good news bringers and warners (6.48; 18.56), that Allah sent all messengers in the language of the people (14.4), and that all messengers and prophets were mocked (15.11; 43.6–7). The Bible, on the other hand, does not confirm the Quran’s claims that God sent messengers to every community (Q 10.47; 16.36), that God assigned an enemy to every prophet (“satans of the humans and jinn,” 6.112), or that Satan “casts” into the wishful thinking of every messenger and prophet (22.52).
More consequential are the categorical statements about political power and force. “How many a prophet has fought (qātala)?” asks the Quran (3.146), apparently commenting on a battle scene in which the survival of Muhammad (3.144) was in doubt. To what extent were messengers sent to be obeyed (4.64)? Is it true that no prophet may take captives “until he makes wide slaughter in the land” (8.67, trans. Arberry; cf. Pickthall)? These statements do not match the Quran’s portrayal of most prophets and messengers, much less the biblical accounts.
As for envoys who ate food in 25.20, the Quran seems to use this statement to deny deity to ‘Īsā at 5.75. The reference to walking about in the markets (aswāq) is also intriguing because of polemical controversy over Isaiah’s first “Song of the Suffering Servant” (Isaiah 42:1–7). The song says that the servant “will not raise his voice in the streets” (v. 2), and the Gospel accounts find this prophecy fulfilled in the behavior of Jesus (e.g., Matthew 12:15–21). However, several early Muslim writers cited a tradition resembling Isaiah 42:2 about a person who “will not be clamorous in the markets,” which they claimed to be a mention of the messenger of Islam in the Torah.