Surah Al Anbiya Tafseer

مَا يَأْتِيهِم مِّن ذِكْرٍ مَّن رَّبِّهِم مُّحْدَثٍ

Comes not unto them an admonition from their Lord as a recent revelation,

meaning, newly-revealed,

إِلاَّ اسْتَمَعُوهُ وَهُمْ يَلْعَبُونَ

لَااهِيَةً قُلُوبُهُمْ

but they listen to it while they play. With their hearts occupied.

This is like what Ibn Abbas said,

"Why do you ask the People of the Book about what they have, which has been altered and distorted, and they have added things and taken things away, when your Book is the most recently revealed from Allah, and you read it pure and unadulterated"

Al-Bukhari recorded something similar to this.

وَأَسَرُّواْ النَّجْوَى الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ

Those who do wrong, conceal their private counsels,

meaning, what they say to one another in secret.

هَلْ هَذَا إِلاَّ بَشَرٌ مِّثْلُكُمْ

Is this more than a human being like you!

meaning, the Messenger of Allah.

They did not believe that he could be a Prophet because he was a human being like them, so how could he have been singled out to receive revelation, and not them!