These signs that they proposed—had they actually been granted them and they still refused to believe—would have brought down upon them the annihilating punishment previously described. Moreover, the very nature of the signs they requested makes it unfitting that they be produced. Their words, “until you cause a spring to gush for us from the earth,” would require that the spring burst forth in the land of Mecca, turning it into a cultivated valley. Yet in His wisdom Allah has placed His Sacred House in a valley devoid of vegetation, lest anything of worldly attraction be found there and people make the pilgrimage for worldly gain rather than for Allah. Likewise, were he to possess a garden of date-palms and grapes through which he caused rivers to flow abundantly, such worldly expansion would necessarily diminish his spiritual rank and lower his standing. The same applies were he to have a house of zukhraf—that is, of gold. As for causing the sky to fall in pieces, that will not take place until the Day of Resurrection.