A Messenger to Banū Isrāʾīl

Wa yuʿallimuhu al-kitāba wa-l-ḥikmata wa-l-tawrāta wa-l-injīl: Allah will teach him the Book, and wisdom. What is wisdom? The sunnah of whom? The sunnah of ʿĪsā. Every Nabī has a sunnah; so Allah (swt) taught him the sunnah of ʿĪsā ibn Maryam.

And a messenger to Banū Isrāʾīl. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) says: the anbiyāʾ were sent to their people specifically, and I was sent to all of the world. ʿĪsā ibn Maryam here says: I was sent to Banū Isrāʾīl. All of the anbiyāʾ had a local responsibility; the responsibility of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was to provide the message to the world.

The ayat of the Qur'an that present Islam as a global message are about twenty. There are about twenty ayat of the Qur'an that say that Islam is a global religion and a global message — and eighteen of them were revealed in Makkah. So when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was still in Makkah, and was still giving daʿwah only to the people of Makkah, the Qur'an was already telling them that this is a worldwide religion, and that you were sent to all mankind. And an example of that is in Sūrat al-Qalam, which is one of the early sūrahs revealed in Makkah:

Wa mā huwa illā dhikrun li-l-ʿālamīn: this is a reminder to all the world. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was still giving daʿwah to the people of Makkah, but Allah was telling him that this is for all the world. So from the beginning — from the beginning — Islam was a worldwide religion. And most of the ayat that give Islam this global character, presenting it as a global message, were revealed in Makkah, not in Madīnah. From the beginning, this was a worldwide religion.

Raḥmatan li-l-ʿālamīn — in Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ: wa mā arsalnāka illā raḥmatan li-l-ʿālamīn. We have sent you as a mercy for mankind. And this is an ayah revealed in Makkah also.