The Quran

124

Preface

وَإِذا جاءَتهُم آيَةٌ قالوا لَن نُؤمِنَ حَتّىٰ نُؤتىٰ مِثلَ ما أوتِيَ رُسُلُ اللَّهِ ۘ اللَّهُ أَعلَمُ حَيثُ يَجعَلُ رِسالَتَهُ ۗ سَيُصيبُ الَّذينَ أَجرَموا صَغارٌ عِندَ اللَّهِ وَعَذابٌ شَديدٌ بِما كانوا يَمكُرونَ

Yusuf Ali

When there comes to them a sign (from God., They say: “We shall not believe until we receive one (exactly) like those received by God’s messengers.”¹ God knoweth best where (and how) to carry out His mission. Soon will the wicked be overtaken by humiliation before God, and a severe punishment, for all their plots.

Besides the teaching in God’s Word, and the teaching in God’s world, of nature and history and human contacts, many Signs come to the men of God, which they humbly receive and try to understand; and many Signs also come to the ungodly, in the shape of warnings or otherwise, which the ungodly either do not heed, or deliberately reject. The Signs in the two cases are not the same, and that becomes one of their perverse arguments against faith. But God’s working will be according to His own Will and Plan, and not according to the wishes or whims of the ungodly (Cf. 29:50-51).