(15–17) “When Our clear verses are recited to them, those who do not expect to meet Us say, ‘Bring us a Quran other than this, or change it.’ Say, ‘It is not for me to change it of my own accord. I follow only what is revealed to me. I fear, if I disobey my Lord, the punishment of a tremendous Day.’ Say, ‘Had Allah willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I had lived among you for a lifetime before it. Will you not then reason?’ Who is more unjust than one who fabricates a lie against Allah or denies His signs? Surely the guilty will not succeed.”

The Most High describes the obstinacy of those who rejected His Messenger Muhammad—may Allah bless him and grant him peace. When Allah’s Quranic verses, which make the truth clear, were recited to them, they turned away and made obstinate demands, brazenly and unjustly saying, “Bring us a Quran other than this, or change it.” May Allah disgrace them! How brazen they are before Allah, how grievous their injustice, and how vehement their rejection of His signs!

Allah commands even the great Messenger to tell them: “It is not for me”—that is, it would neither be proper nor fitting—“to change it of my own accord. I am solely a messenger and have no say in the matter. I follow only what is revealed ⦗360⦘ to me”—that is all I can do, for I am a servant under command. “I fear, if I disobey my Lord, the punishment of a tremendous Day.” This is the declaration of the best of creation and the reverence he observes toward his Lord’s commands and revelation. What, then, of these misguided fools, who combine ignorance with misguidance, injustice with stubbornness, and obstinate demands with an attempt to challenge the Lord of all worlds? Do they not fear the punishment of a tremendous Day?!

If they claim that they merely wanted the truth to be made clear to them through the signs they requested, they are lying. Allah has already made clear such signs as are sufficient to lead human beings to faith. It is He who presents them in whatever manner He wills, in accordance (1) with His divine wisdom and His mercy toward His servants.

“Say, ‘Had Allah willed, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I had lived among you for a lifetime’”—a long time—“before it,” that is, before reciting it and before you knew anything of it. It had never crossed my mind or occurred to me.

“Will you not then reason?” Since I did not fabricate it at any point throughout my life, and nothing ever came from me to suggest that I would, how could I suddenly fabricate it thereafter? I lived among you for a long lifetime, and you know the truth of my circumstances: I am unlettered; I neither read nor write, nor have I studied or learned from anyone!

Yet I have brought you a magnificent Book that has left even the most eloquent unable to match it and has baffled scholars. Could it possibly, despite all this, have come from me? Or is this not conclusive proof that it is a revelation from One All-Wise, Praiseworthy?

Had you exercised your powers of thought and reason and reflected upon my circumstances and the nature of this Book, you would have concluded with a certainty admitting no doubt that it is true and that it is the truth, beyond which there is only error. But since (2) you insist upon denial and obstinacy, you are undoubtedly wrongdoers.

“Who is more unjust than one who fabricates a lie against Allah or denies His signs?”

If I had fabricated it, I would have been the most unjust of people, success would have eluded me, and my circumstances would not have remained hidden from you. But I have brought you Allah’s signs, and you have denied them; it therefore follows that you are the wrongdoers. Your cause is bound to come to nothing, and you will never attain success so long as you persist in this way.

His words, “Those who do not expect to meet Us,” indicate that what drove them to make these obstinate demands was their disbelief in meeting Allah and their failure to hope for that meeting. Whoever believes in meeting Allah will inevitably submit to this Book and believe in it, for his intent is sound.