(59–60) “Nothing prevented Us from sending the signs except that the former peoples denied them. We gave Thamūd the she-camel as a clear sign, but they wronged her. We send the signs only as a warning. And remember when We told you, ‘Your Lord has surely encompassed the people.’ We made the vision We showed you—and the accursed tree mentioned in the Quran—only a trial for the people. We warn them, but this only increases them in great transgression.”
Allah Most High speaks of His mercy in not sending down the signs demanded by the deniers. Nothing prevented Him from sending them except concern that they would deny them; for if they did, punishment would swiftly overtake them and befall them without delay, just as it did the former peoples who denied such signs.
Among the greatest of these signs was the magnificent and astonishing she-camel that Allah sent to Thamūd, from which the entire tribe could drink its fill. Nevertheless, they denied her, and what Allah has related to us in His Book befell them. Likewise, even if these people were shown tremendous signs, they would not believe. What prevented them from believing was not that the Messenger’s message was obscure or that they were uncertain whether it was true or false. He had already brought abundant proofs establishing the truth of his message—proofs sufficient to guide anyone who sought guidance. Any further signs would have been no different, and they would inevitably have treated them as they had treated the others. Given this situation, not sending them was better and more beneficial for them.
His words, “We send the signs only as a warning,” mean that these signs were not intended to be the sole means of calling people to faith, such that faith could not be attained without them. Rather, their purpose was to instill fear and alarm so that people might desist from their present course.
“And remember when We told you, ‘Your Lord has surely encompassed the people’”—in knowledge and power. They therefore have no refuge to which they can flee and no sanctuary in which they can seek protection from Him. For anyone possessed of reason, this is sufficient cause to desist from everything displeasing to Allah, who encompasses all people.
“We made the vision We showed you only a trial.” Most commentators hold that this refers to the Night Journey.
“And the accursed tree” mentioned “in the Quran” is the tree of Zaqqūm, which grows at the bottom of Hell.
The meaning is that these two matters became a trial for the people: the disbelievers grew more obstinate in their disbelief and increased in evil, while some whose faith was weak turned away from it. This was because what the Messenger told them about the events of the Night Journey—including the journey from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque—was beyond ordinary experience.
Likewise, the report that a tree grows at the bottom of Hell was also extraordinary, and this led them to deny it. What, then, if they had witnessed tremendous signs and momentous wonders? Would that not have been even more likely to increase their evil?! For that reason, Allah had mercy on them and withheld those signs from them.
From this you may understand that it is better and wiser that the Book and the Sunnah do not explicitly mention the momentous developments that arose in later times. Matters unlike anything people had previously witnessed might not have been accepted by their minds had they been told of them before they occurred. This could have sown doubt in the hearts of some believers, prevented those who had not yet entered Islam from doing so, and driven them away from it. Instead, Allah used general expressions broad enough to encompass everything that would occur.