—so that when the very signs they themselves had proposed were actually brought to them, their arrival afforded them no benefit at all. Rather, they only made them deserving of the punishment of total annihilation once the signs appeared and they still refused to believe, and they served to make the case against them all the more severe. Thus, not sending down such signs—signs that would have necessitated the punitive eradication of a people—was in fact a greater mercy and wisdom.

Allah even offered Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—to destroy his people when they denied him, but he replied, “Instead, grant them respite; perhaps Allah will bring forth from their loins those who worship Allah alone without associating anything with Him.”

This is confirmed by the report found in both Ṣaḥīḥ collections, in which ʿĀʾishah said to the Prophet, peace be upon him, “Has there ever been a day more difficult for you than the Day of Uhud?”

He answered, “I have endured much from your people, and the hardest thing I faced from them was on the day of al-ʿAqabah, when I presented myself to Ibn ʿAbd Yalīl ibn ʿAbd Kulāl and he did not grant me what I sought. I departed, greatly distressed, and did not regain my senses until I found myself at Qarn al-Thaʿālib. I lifted my head and saw a cloud shading me; in it was Gabriel, who called out to me, saying, ‘Allah has heard the words of your people and how they have responded to you…’”