“Alladhīna qāla lahumu al-nāsu inna al-nāsa qad jamaʿū lakum”
“Those to whom people said: people have gathered against you.” (Āl ʿImrān 3:173, excerpt)
The word “people” occurs twice, but neither occurrence must refer to every human being. One denotes those delivering the warning and the other the hostile forces being described. A collective noun may identify a limited group within an identifiable event.
Historical reports differ in some details of the messenger who conveyed the warning. The relevant point of the verse is the believers’ response of trust and resolve.
An interpreter must distinguish a word’s general linguistic range from its particular contextual referent.