And in Surah al-Hijr:

“Indeed, in that are signs for those who discern.” ⦗al-Hijr 75⦘ (75)

“And it lies on a well-trodden road.” ⦗al-Hijr 76⦘ (76)

“Indeed, in that is a sign for the believers.” ⦗al-Hijr 77⦘ (77)

“The people of the Thicket were surely wrongdoers.” ⦗al-Hijr 78⦘ (78)

“So We took retribution upon them, and the two of them lie along a manifest highway.” ⦗al-Hijr 79⦘ (79)

The “manifest imam” here is the clear, unmistakable road. The Almighty makes plain that both of those sites stand along a route visible to people’s eyes, so that they may realize what Allah did to those who denied and defied His messengers. Allah’s support for the believers and His vengeance upon the disbelievers constitute proof of the prophets’ truthfulness, of the same kind as the proof supplied by miraculous signs. That one act was done for the sake of the other, and that one event served as the cause of the other, is something known intuitively once the matter is pictured as it really is—like the staff’s turning into a serpent when Pharaoh demanded a sign, the moon’s splitting when the idolaters of Mecca asked for one, and other such cases.

The well-known objection that is raised at this point against the view of those who