that none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth has sent down these signs as clear proofs.”

For this reason, the Most High said:

“Has the news not reached you of those before you—the people of Noah, Ād, Thamūd, and those after them whom none but Allah knows? Their messengers came to them with clear proofs, but they put their hands into their mouths and said, ‘We reject what you have been sent with, and we are in troubling doubt about that to which you call us.’ Their messengers said, ‘Is there any doubt about Allah, the Originator of the heavens and the earth? He calls you to forgive you some of your sins and grant you respite until an appointed time.’”

The Most High thus tells us that when those deniers said, “We are in troubling doubt about that to which you call us,” their messengers said, “Is there any doubt about Allah?”

This is a rhetorical question that denies the existence of such doubt and rebukes anyone who does not acknowledge its absence. The meaning is: There is no doubt about Allah, and you know that there is no doubt about Him; yet you deny this absence of doubt, and your denial merits rebuke.

This indicates that the people being addressed have no doubt about Allah, showing that they are naturally disposed to acknowledge Him. Otherwise, a matter known through reasoning necessarily involves doubt before knowledge is attained, especially if the path to it is obscure and lengthy. Everyone unfamiliar with those methods would therefore doubt it. If there is no path to knowledge other than the method based on accidents, the method based on existence, and the like, then anyone unfamiliar with these methods would have doubts about Allah—and they are