Saturday, April 24, 2021

When disbelievers demand a miracle

6:67"For every prophecy is a term, and you will come to know it"

The previous verses speak of the prophet grieving over his people's disbelief as well as their persecution of him and his followers. Allah then tells him that, as was done with previous messengers, His help comes in due time and there is none that can change these words of promises by Allah 6:34. The prophet should therefore be patient. 

He must understand that miracles are not manifested to conform to the whims of the disbelievers. Miracles are meant at causing mindfulness in open hearts, to the fact that the prophecies of punishment in this world, let alone those to be meted out in the Hereafter, will eventually unfold at some point should the people persist in their ways. The sending of a sign, whose nature and magnitude are determined by God, draws a nation closer to potential destruction 
17:59"and We do not send signs but to make (men) fear". 
When God judges that every possible warning has been properly conveyed and that a nation's time of respite, during which it was allowed to reflect on the signs and message brought by the prophets, has expired, and that nothing more can be done to make them mend their ways, He imposes His judgement on the rejecters of His prophets in this world.

Like the prophets of old whose signs and prophecies came to warn their addressees during an interval for deliberation with a deadline, Muhammad presented the surrounding signs attesting to the truth of his message, he recited the Quran whose miraculous eloquence they could not but call sorcery and magic, and issued warnings of divine retribution upon the rejectors when their appointed time of respite expires. When the deadline was reached, ultimate destruction befell the rejecters, thus confirming the divine pattern in this world.

When the disbelievers request signs, it is only because they are seeking excuses for their disbelief, or to side-track the issue of worshipping only One God and rejecting their false gods. Those who make such requests, never do it with an open heart, neither do they show a will to listen to the message itself prior to their demands
6:36"Only those accept who listen". 
Such people are heedless of the fact that signs cause the destruction of those that request then reject them. The descent of a sign hastens the expiry of their time of respite. They are destroyed then, because the type of manifest sign they demand leaves no more room for speculation.

So, as denoted in 17:59, it clearly is God's Mercy that prevents Him from sending a miracle as per their immediate request. The second part of the verse 17:59 says what kind of "ancients" rejected the signs. They were for instance the Thamud who were destroyed when they transgressed in the matter of the she-camel. They had requested that sign themselves and then denied it, regarding it to be mere intimidation and a pressure tactic 14:9-10,26:154-5. The prophecied punishment that befell them all of a sudden, while in their homes that consequently became their tombs, came as an overly exceeding 69:5 loud blast/sayha or lethal noise/saaiqa that caused a rajfat/shaking in them (shaking from a sound) 7:78,11:65-7,41:17.

A few generations later the people of Madyan to whom Shuayb was sent suffered a similar fate 11:94,29:36-7. The ruins of the people of Thamud can still be seen up to this day 27:52,29:38 despite the passing of civilisations over them, including the Nabataeans who put their dead in these very homes once carved in mountains by the Thamud 26:149, thus extending upon these latter's original constructions. The Thamud themselves inherited the land from the nation of Aad to whom Hud was sent. 

The people of Hud were also visited by divine punishment in the form of an extreme windstorm, killing them. It kept on blowing for several days and nights until their once imposing but now lifeless bodies in which they prided themselves, were torn apart along with their achievements and possessions 7:73-4,11:50-60,41:13-18,51:41-2,54:19-20,69:6-7. Contrary to the devastation caused by nature or humans, when divine destruction is sent upon a people, it leaves no chance to anyone or anything meant to be annihilated, as here stated regarding the nations of Madyan and Thamud 
11:95-100"As though they had never dwelt there...This is of the tidings of the towns (which) We relate to you; some of them are still standing and some have been mown down".
The example of Thamud is very relevant here as the same situation was repeating with the Quraysh. They were tauntingly demanding the prophet Muhammad for a sign. Yet they did not show the slightest will to consider the message itself. They rejected his calls to the return of their original monotheistic spiritual path, although they knew and acknowledged their Abrahamic ancestry, knowingly admitting to Allah's supreme authority above all their interceding deities. Just as the Thamud, they forgot that their nation was established by a favour from God, that they owed their security to their Abrahamic legacy. The verse 17:59 isnt speaking of the sending of signs in general, but of the sending of signs as per the disbelievers' request. The verse is saying "We will not answer your request for a sign because people like you in the past did the same and when they got what they wanted they remained in denial so We had to destroy them as per the requirements of divine justice" ie "We are being merciful in not answering your request".

The Thamud, on top of their polytheism were overly complacent in their worldly achievements. They knew, just as the Quraysh, that they had a monotheistic, more precisely, a Noahide background to which they had progressively, knowingly, mixed with idolatrous practices 
7:74"Remember when He made you successors after 'Ad, and settled you in the land; you build palaces in its plains, and hew houses out of the mountains. So remember Allah's bounties and do not act wickedly on the earth, causing corruption". 
This ungratefulness was to be put to the test. They had to swallow their pride and greed, leaving an animal to drink freely in that land which they were ungrateful for, referred to by their prophet Salih as 
7:73"Allah's land". 
In reality they had no absolute authority on it, they were established in it as a divine favour after the destruction of previous nations whose stories they knew about. They had to acknowledge these facts by leaving the she-camel to feed during intervals of time decreed for her, and then take their turn along with their cattle 
54:27-9,17:59"and We gave to Samood the she-camel-- a manifest sign-- but on her account they did injustice". 
The camel was sent after a long time of respite and continuous taunting of their prophet. Their arrogance and ungratefulness to God's blessings led them to eventually reject that sign which they themselves requested. This led to their utter destruction. Before that, during their time of respite, they kept mockingly asking for the punishment to befall them and were urged to ask for forgiveness instead. As per the divine law concerning the prevailing of God's messengers and destruction of the die-hard rejecters, they were bound to perish at the expiration of their time of respite. This means they were bound to be destroyed whether or not their request for a sign was granted, so God used those people who were doomed in all case as an example for the following generations by accepting their request for a sign.

It is thus a mercy to these very people to whom prophets of all times were confronted, that God does not answer their request immediately. Thus, it is in Quraysh's own interest that they do not emulate the preceding nations by keeping on demanding the prophet to send them a sign, instead of pondering on the message and their own spiritual condition in light of the arguments presented and the numerous signs observable daily that attest to the truth of the message. Had the signs been sent down as and when they requested, their current state of opposition was such that they would have found any excuse to deny and denigrate them, and would have increased their enmity towards the message bearer and his message. Just as those before them, who were then destroyed although they were much more powerful than them. Pharaoh and his people are among those examples.

This is an important aspect of miracles. If God chooses to manifest one through his prophets or by other means, it establishes the tremendous responsibility of those that witness it. Its rejection, and even should one be momentarily convinced then return to his wrong ways, causes retribution to descend at the time decreed by God. Besides the nations of the past that made such requests and remained heedless, the likes of the Egyptians or the aforementioned people, the Israelites were, and still are, a prime example of the half-hearted ones who are only temporarily convinced. Speaking of them, the Quran says
44:33"And We gave them of the signs that in which there was an obvious trial".
God therefore clearly warns those who demand it as a challenge or mockery, that they are in fact inviting their own doom 
40:78"and it was not meet for a messenger that he should bring a sign except with Allah's permission, but when the command of Allah came, judgment was given with truth, and those who treated (it) as a lie were lost". 
When the tables descended for Jesus and the Apostles 5:112-5, God warned the Apostles, through Jesus, that if they turned away after this, they would face a punishment unlike what others would normally face because it came at their own request. Being Jews, these close followers of Jesus knew that the performance of miracles by an individual, although impressive, are no indication of the truthfulness of his prophethood. They wanted a sign from God Himself, which was indicative of Him being the God  of their forefathers, the One that fed them with heavenly food during their desert wandering. But this request came with immense responsibilities and consequences. This is an observable reality through the history of the Jewish people and the severity of their punishments that were collective and at the height of the miracles they witnessed and sometimes requested as a community. As Jesus said, the entire nation will be held accountable for the death of the prophets although not all of them physically took part in their murder Matt14:10,17:l2,Lk11:47-51. It is even reported that the Jews arrogantly and defiantly accepted that concept of collective punishment Matt27:25.

The Quran has pointed and explained the implications of many signs which exist in the world around and within man, calling him to ponder on every aspect of existence. These are in fact the true miracles happening everyday and only the one with an open heart is able to derive the higher realities from them. This is the particularity of the Quranic argument, to grasp things, concepts, phenomena which the human sees and experiences on a near daily basis, and teaches him the right angle from which to perceive them. The Quran uses simple scenes long familiar to man to attract attention to the higher realities and build profound faith. From a spiritual point of view, the same miraculous complexity applies to the building blocks of life as to gigantic structures and the universe. These scenes are used by the Quran because it addresses every human being, at all times and conditions. It does not seek to accommodate the philosophical and scientific intellectual elite while disregarding less educated people. The observations to which it points can be utilized by anyone so as to derive spiritual benefits. Through this approach among others, including a balance of warnings and glad tidings, as well as prophecies progressively unfolding, history attests that the prophet Muhammad, although often denigrated by Judeo-Christian critics who are ignorant of their own books, this prophet was in fact the most successful in implementing the will of God on an unprecedented scope and scale. Every time the prophet's opponents asked him for a miracle on demand, he was told to point them to a similar phenomena occurring daily under their eyes as evidence of a wise Creator 
45:25-6"And when Our verses are recited to them as clear evidences, their argument is only that they say, "Bring [back] our forefathers, if you should be truthful". Say, "Allah causes you to live, then causes you to die; then He will assemble you for the Day of Resurrection, about which there is no doubt, but most of the people do not know". 
How will they admit to a miraculous sign the like of which they are demanding, if they arent able to see the imprint of a Creator in everyday causality? That is why we find that even those prophets that did perform miracles on demand to those kinds of obdurate people, were accused of sorcery and had in fact very little following 
45:23"Have you seen he who has taken as his god his [own] desire, and Allah has sent him astray due to knowledge and has set a seal upon his hearing and his heart and put over his vision a veil? So who will guide him after Allah? Then will you not be reminded?"
Therefore a person who never views a supernatural wonder, per the Quran, can attain a much higher superiority in the eyes of God than those that do, because they believe through hearkening their inner sense of spiritual perception 
2:118"Indeed We have made the signs clear for a people who are sure". 
What we refer to as nature is actually miraculous and "unnatural". It is only because they continuously unfold in front of our eyes that we take them for granted. 

When such signs fail to convince people's hearts and set right their vision, then it means such people cannot perceive the divine presence. If they cannot derive the correct spiritual conclusions from everyday occurrences, then nothing will make them believe, especially not the type of wonders they often demand. They will do their best to find a reason other than God as the cause, so that their erroneous world-view is maintained. It was thus a mercy from God that He repeatedly denied these requests by the disbelievers in the prophet Muhammad's time, leaving them instead the time to be repeatedly exposed to the signs of creation the Quran was continuously pointing them to. This way the foundation of faith is strongly established, after which an open heart may request to see a sign so as to be further comforted. One in fact finds that most of the time, once persuasion is achieved the believer does not even need or want to see miracles 
10:101"Consider what is it that is in the heavens and the earth; and signs and warners do not avail a people who would not believe". 
Therefore, and as Jesus stated regarding the wicked Pharisees in the NT, why would God manifest a sign to those who reject the innumerable wonders evidence of His existence and whose hearts are devoid of faith 
6:109-110"And they swear by Allah with the strongest of their oaths, that if a sign came to them they would most certainly believe in it. Say: Signs are only with Allah; and what should make you know that when it comes they will not believe? And We will turn their hearts and their sights, even as they did not believe in it the first time, and We will leave them in their inordinacy, blindly wandering on". 
The Quran confirms and upholds the miracles performed by past prophets as signs of God's power, mercy, wisdom, and reiterates the fact that God exalted some prophets above others in certain particular fields. The Quran does not denigrate or deny these miracles and the exalted status of some prophets, in order to justify the fact that Muhammad like many other prophets even of the HB did not perform great wonders such as those of Moses or Jesus.

If God's judgement is immediately made in answer to the people's iniquities, not only will the wrongdoing people be immediately destroyed 6:47 but also not a single soul would be left on the Earth 16:61. Divine Retribution is thus certainly not exacted for gratification of a sense of revenge, or to settle any personal account. God is self-sufficient, above all the needs of the world. He is not in the least affected, whether increased or decreased by His creatures' actions. 

Rather divine retribution is due to divine justice, it is the natural outcome of the order of causality to which the humans have been subjected to, as volitional creatures. As alluded to by David in the HB when recalling the sins of his people, God leaves a time of respite to return to the straight path, and even when His requital is inflicted when that respite expires, it is less proportionate than truly deserved
 Ps103:10"He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor has He repaid us according to our iniquities".
The disbelievers have always asked their prophets to hasten on God's promised doom as evidence of the prophets' truthfulness 
8:32,10:48-54,11:8,32-33,29:50-6,38:14-6,67:25-8,13:6"And they ask you to hasten on the evil before the good, and indeed there have been exemplary punishments before them; and most surely your Lord is the Lord of forgiveness to people, notwithstanding their injustice; and most surely your Lord is severe in requiting (evil)". 
The same is also reported in the Hebrew Bible, as in the times of the prophet Jeremiah when not a day would go by without that the people sought opportunities to make him appear ridiculous and insane 
"Where is God's word? Why does it not come true? God is not, and misfortune will never reach us". 
See also Jer17:15-18.

All prophets answered consistently this type of taunts with the fact that this matter is solely in God's hands. Many factors unknown to their simple mind frame enter into account when executing that plan, it does not come in answer to their challenges. Neither does the delay in the execution of God's promised doom indicates their being on the right or an inability and weakness from God. That is besides the fact that the notion of time, in relation to the divine realm, is nothing like what humans perceive of in terms of linear progression
22:47"And they ask you to hasten on the punishment, and Allah will by no means fail in His promise, and surely a day with your Lord is as a thousand years of what you number" 
7:183"And I will grant them respite. Verily My devising is strong". 
Such matter isnt even executed according to the believers' requests. Frustrated, they would pray for the punishment of those who persecuted them and rejected the Message. In those moments one loses far-sightedness, the possibility that some among those whom they curse could turn back and reform themselves. And this is what happened during the advent of Islam, where countless ones among the Muslims' enemies eventually embraced Islam and became its standard bearers in the world
 17:11"And man prays for evil as he ought to pray for good, and man is ever hasty". 
This verse warns both disbelievers and believers who all have the tendency to pray for whatever satisfies the immediate need of the time, though often subsequent experience shows that if Allah had granted such prayer, it would have brought great harm to the one who originally was so eager to see his prayer answered.

So the matter of hastening on a promised punishment shoudnt be of any concern to the humans, for such matter does not even befall the guilty in immediate retribution to their iniquities, but according to God's timing and intricate knowledge   
6:58"Say: If that which you desire to hasten were with me, the matter would have certainly been decided between you and me; and Allah best knows the unjust". 
Another factor taken into account in the matter of divine retribution on a nation, is that God's will predicates that there is a time of respite that does not expire so long as the messenger is in their midst, along with righteous people, calling his nation to reform 8:33. The scourge is finally sent when the people have no more possible excuse for their rejection, something accessible only to God's omniscience, or when the messenger emigrates along with his followers or that he might be murdered at any instant. 

This appointed term is one of the manifestations of God's indiscriminate mercy to both the rejecters who are given time to mend their ways and the believers whose righteousness is safeguarded by discarding the rotten elements of their community
 6:12,13:6"And they ask you to hasten on the evil before the good, and indeed there have been exemplary punishments before them; and most surely your Lord is the Lord of forgiveness to people, notwithstanding their injustice; and most surely your Lord is severe in requiting (evil)".
Allah therefore grants respite to the sinners to allow them the opportunity to mend their ways and fulfil the higher objective for which they, and all mankind were created 18:58,51:56. During this time of respite, they are pointed to the signs of creation, then tried 7:163-4, given a lighter punishment, in degrees, in natural consequence of their misdeeds. The aim is to stimulate their morality before the greater and comprehensive reckoning 16:47,32:21,52:47. 

This was the case in Muhammad's time, as his opponents were inflicted with hardships with the objective of awakening them 54:45-6. Similarly in the parable of the owners of the gardens who seized the opportunity for reform while others remained heedless to the higher realities 56:63-7,68:17-33. Hardships should make one realize that one is not in total control of his own destiny. There is a Higher, all-encompassing Power that operates in the most intricate aspects of life. Some are spiritually revived through these wake up calls, and others continue in their heedlessness, oblivious of the higher realities, until their hearts are sealed 
23:76,7:94,6:42-3"We seized them with distress and affliction in order that they might humble themselves. Yet why did they not, when Our punishment came to them, humble themselves? But their hearts hardened and the Shaitan made what they did fair-seeming to them". 
What is worse than transgression and disbelief is the continuation and persistence along that path, despite God putting in one life obstacles meant at making one reflect 
3:112"..they have incurred wrath from Allah; and wretchedness has been stumped upon them. That is because they went on rejecting Allah's Signs...they disobeyed, and went on transgressing".
The prophets sent to the Israelites repeatedly lamented over that careless attitude, in which their people persisted even while undergoing the harshest trials that were aimed at cleansing and humbling them 
Hos7:10"And the pride of Israel was humbled before him, and they did not return to the Lord their God, and did not seek Him despite this" 
Amos4:9-11"I smote you with blast and with yellowing; the increase of your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees the shearing locust has devoured, but you have not returned to Me, says the Lord. I sent a pestilence upon you after the manner of Egypt; I slew your young men with the sword, with the captivity of your horses, and I caused the stench of your camps to rise, and in your nostrils, but you have not returned to Me, says the Lord. I have overthrown some of you like God's overthrow of Sodom and Gemorrah, and you were like a brand plucked from burning, but you have not returned to Me, says the Lord". 
In a psalm attributed to Moses, the concept is summed up 
Ps90:3"You bring man to the crushing point, and You say, "Return, O sons of men.""
Those ones who are firm in their disbelief, whose hearts are sealed and do not have anymore goodness in them so as to cause Allah to turn to them mercifully and restore their spiritual senses, they will not turn back and mend their ways during their respite, no matter the distress that afflicts them 23:75. 

Those who remain in their wrong ways, the extension of their life becomes a punishment prior to the day they are raised, as they pile up sins upon sins 
14:42-3,3:178"And let not those who disbelieve think that Our granting them respite is better for their souls; We grant them respite only that they may add to their sins; and they shall have a disgraceful chastisement". 
That God doesn't bring down His retribution upon the transgressors immediately doesn't take away, to the spiritually aware, the higher reality that God does things within His own time-frame and according to the system of leaving a time of respite to each individual. Yet to the blind, that they are able to continue living their life of sin is an encouragement to pursue their evil course, as observed by the prophet Solomon 
Ecc8:3-12"Hasten not to go away from before Him; stay not in an evil thing; for all that He wishes, He will do....Because the sentence of the deed of evil is not executed swiftly; therefore, the heart of the children of men is encouraged to do evil. For a sinner does evil a hundred [years], and He grants him an extension; but I know too that it will be good for those who fear God because they fear Him".
This category of vehement rejectors, Allah gives them respite as a punishment in this world, that will culminate in the hereafter. They will consequently remain blindly wandering on 10:11 without ever ceasing to be in doubt concerning the Quran 22:55. They will either see the punishment meted out on them in this life or they will suddenly be overtaken by the Hour 
19:75"As for him who remains in error, the Beneficent Allah will surely prolong his length of days, until they see what they were threatened with, either the punishment or the hour". 
Allah is already punishing them in this life by leaving them to further destroy their own soul. This is an unavoidable process, known to prophets of the past, the likes of David who prayed God that this kind of people may 
Ps69:28"Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not come into Your charity".
God attributes in the Quran, their "growing in sinfulness" to His own will because, as in other instances, it is He who has imposed on all His creation the natural law of cause and effect.

That grant of respite is a mighty and intricate plan by God 
68:44-45,7:182-183"And (as to) those who reject Our communications, We draw them near (to destruction) by degrees from whence they know not. And I grant them respite; surely My scheme is effective". 
The disbelievers, ungrateful, are given more bounties and favors in order to make them even more complacent. The bounties, children and other favors are only meant to serve man in his quest for righteousness 
5:48,18:7,64:15,39:49"it is a trial, but most of them do not know". 
But in the case of the ungrateful, these favors become a poison to his soul, deluding him away from God's remembrance for the sake of preserving these interests, thinking that their continuation is strictly in his own power 
63:9"let not your wealth, or your children, divert you from the remembrance of Allah; and whoever does that, these are the losers". 
These blessings become insidious calamities sometimes leading to destruction in this world, but whose effect on the soul become truly apparent in the Hereafter 
8:53"That is because Allah does not change a blessing He has bestowed on a people unless they change what is in their own selves, and Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing". 
As is clear, in Quran terminology, divine displeasure and chastisement does not only translate in physical pain or miseries. Even what one might see as blessings, comforts and luxuries can be punishment from a higher perspective.

The prophet David warns against falling in this type of sin 
Ps52:9"Behold the man who does not place his strength in God and trusts his great wealth; he strengthened himself in his wickedness".
As the Quran states in one of the earliest revelations 
96:6-8"man is most surely inordinate, Because he sees himself free from want. Surely to your Lord is the return". 
Those who think of themselves as "self-sufficient", in control of their sustenance, and ultimately unaccountable for their deeds can never satisfy such a world-view at the end, since its premise is entirely false 
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