They said, “O Muhammad, if you will not accept what we have offered you, then you know that no people are more confined in their land or harsher in their living conditions than we are. So ask your Lord, who sent you, to move these mountains away from us, for they have constricted us; to spread out our land for us; and to cause rivers to flow through it like the rivers of Syria and Iraq. Let Him also raise up for us those of our forefathers who have passed on—among them Qusayy ibn Kilab, for he was a truthful elder—so that we may ask them whether what you say is true or false. If they affirm you, we shall affirm you.”

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “I was not sent for this. I have conveyed to you that with which I was sent. If you accept it from me, it will be your share in this world and the Hereafter; but if you reject it, I shall patiently await Allah’s command.”

They said, “If you will not do this, then ask your Lord to send us an angel to confirm you. Ask Him to grant you gardens, palaces, and treasures of gold and silver that will spare you the need for what we see you pursuing, for you walk through the marketplaces seeking a livelihood just as we do.”

He said, “I was not sent for this; rather, Allah sent me as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner.”

They said, “Then cause the sky to fall upon us, as you have claimed that your Lord would do if He willed.”

He said, “That belongs to Allah: if He wills to do that to you, He will do it.”

One of them said, “We will never believe you until you bring Allah and the angels before us.”

When they said this, the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, rose to leave, and Abdullah ibn Abi Umayyah rose with him. He was the son of his paternal aunt, Atikah bint Abd al-Muttalib. He said, “O Muhammad, your people offered you what they offered, but you did not accept it from them. Then they asked you for matters concerning themselves by which they could know your standing before Allah, exalted is He, but you did not do so. Then they asked you to hasten the punishment with which you warn them, but you did not do so. By Allah, I shall never believe you until you set up a ladder to the sky and climb it while I watch, then return with an unrolled written document and a company of angels to testify to the truth of what you say. By Allah, even if you did that, I think I still would not believe you.”

The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, returned to his family saddened by the distance they kept from him. Then Allah, exalted is He, revealed: “And they say, ‘We will never believe you until you cause a spring to gush forth from the earth for us.’” (1) That is, the land of Mecca—“a spring,” meaning: flowing fountains.

“Or you have a garden of palm trees and grapevines, and cause rivers to gush forth abundantly through it” (91).

“Or you have a garden”: an orchard, “of palm trees and grapevines, and cause rivers to gush forth abundantly through it”: that is, by cutting channels through it.