The Quran

109

Preface

وَأَقسَموا بِاللَّهِ جَهدَ أَيمانِهِم لَئِن جاءَتهُم آيَةٌ لَيُؤمِنُنَّ بِها ۚ قُل إِنَّمَا الآياتُ عِندَ اللَّهِ ۖ وَما يُشعِرُكُم أَنَّها إِذا جاءَت لا يُؤمِنونَ

Yusuf Ali

They swear their strongest oaths by God, that if a (special) sign came to them, by it they would believe. Say: “Certainly (all) signs are in the power of God. but what will make you (Muslims) realise that (even) if (special) signs came, they will not believe"?¹

If the unbelievers are merely obstinate, nothing will convince them. There is no story more full of miracles than the story of Jesus. Yet in that same story we are told that Jesus said: “A wicked adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonah”: Matt. 16:4. There are Signs given by God everyday-understood by those who believe. A mere insistence upon some particular or special Sign means mere contumacy and misunderstanding of the spiritual world.