The Quran

قالَ المَلَأُ الَّذينَ استَكبَروا مِن قَومِهِ لِلَّذينَ استُضعِفوا لِمَن آمَنَ مِنهُم أَتَعلَمونَ أَنَّ صالِحًا مُرسَلٌ مِن رَبِّهِ ۚ قالوا إِنّا بِما أُرسِلَ بِهِ مُؤمِنونَ

Muhammad Asad

The great ones among his people, who gloried in their arrogance towards all who were deemed weak, said unto the believers among them: "Do you [really] know that Salih has been sent by his Sustainer?" They answered: "Verily, we believe in the message which he bears."¹

The contents of his message (lit., "that with which he has been sent") appeared to them justification enough to accept it on its merits, without the need of any esoteric "proof" of Salih's mission. In a subtle way, this statement of faith has a meaning which goes far beyond the story of the Thamud. It is an invitation to the sceptic who is unable to believe in the divine origin of a religious message, to judge it on its intrinsic merits and not to make his acceptance dependent on extraneous, and objectively impossible, proofs of its origin: for only through the contents of a message can its truth and validity be established.