This is Allah’s established way and customary practice with earlier and later nations. So take heed from those whose accounts Allah has related to you.

(7–9) “Even if We had sent down to you a Book inscribed on parchment and they had touched it with their own hands, the disbelievers would still have said, ‘This is nothing but obvious magic.’ They also say, ‘Why has an angel not been sent down to him?’ Had We sent down an angel, the matter would have been settled, and then they would have been granted no respite.”

Here Allah informs His Messenger of the extreme obstinacy of the disbelievers. Their denial is not due to any deficiency in what you have brought them, nor to their being ignorant of it. Rather, it stems solely from wrongdoing and transgression, and there is nothing you can do about that. He therefore said: “Even if We had sent down to you a Book inscribed on parchment and they had touched it with their own hands” and become certain of it, “the disbelievers would still have said,” out of wrongdoing and arrogance, “This is nothing but obvious magic.”

What proof could be greater than this? Yet this was their appalling response to it: they brazenly rejected something perceptible to the senses, which no one possessing even the slightest measure of reason could deny.

“They also say,” out of obstinacy founded upon ignorance and failure to understand what reason dictates, “Why has an angel not been sent down to him?” That is, why was an angel not sent down alongside Muhammad to assist and support him in his undertaking? They objected on the grounds that he was a human being, claiming that Allah’s message could be conveyed only by angels.

Allah explained His mercy and kindness toward His servants in sending them a human messenger from among themselves, so that belief in what he brought might be based on knowledge and clear insight while still being faith in the unseen: “Had We sent down an angel” bearing Our message, their faith would not have arisen from recognition of the truth; rather, it would have been faith based on direct observation, and such faith alone is of no benefit. This assumes that they would have believed at all, whereas they most likely would not have believed even under those circumstances. If they then failed to believe, the matter would have been settled by hastening their destruction and granting them no respite. This is Allah’s established way with those who demand signs of their own choosing and then refuse to believe in them.

Thus, sending them a human messenger with clear signs—which Allah knows are best suited to His servants and most considerate toward them—while granting the disbelievers and deniers respite, is better and more beneficial for them. Their demand that an angel be sent down would therefore have been harmful to them, if only they knew. Moreover, even if an angel had been sent down to them as a messenger, they would have been unable to receive from him or endure it, nor could their mortal powers have borne it.