(9–12) “Has the account not reached you of those before you—the people of Noah, Ād, and Thamūd—and those after them, whom none knows but Allah? Their messengers came to them with clear proofs, but they put their hands to their mouths and said, ‘We reject what you have been sent with, and we are indeed in disquieting 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 so that He may forgive your sins and grant you respite until an appointed term.’ They said, ‘You are only human beings like us. You wish to turn us away from what our forefathers worshipped. Then bring us some clear authority.’”
Allah Most High says this to warn His servants of what He inflicted upon the nations that denied the truth. When the messengers came to them, they rejected them, so He punished them with an immediate punishment that people witnessed and heard about. He said, “Has the account not reached you of those before you—the people of Noah, Ād, and Thamūd?” Allah has related and set forth their stories at length in His Book. “And those after them, whom none knows but Allah,” because they were so numerous and the accounts concerning them had vanished.
All of them received “their messengers with clear proofs”; that is, with evidence demonstrating the truthfulness of what they brought. Allah never sent a messenger without granting him signs of a kind that would lead people to believe. Yet when their messengers brought them the clear proofs, they did not submit to them but arrogantly rejected them. “They put their hands to their mouths”; that is, they did not believe what the messengers brought, nor did they utter anything indicative of faith. This resembles His saying, “They put their fingers into their ears against the thunderclaps, for fear of death.”
“And they said” openly to their messengers, “We reject what you have been sent with, and we are indeed in disquieting doubt about that to which you call us”; that is, a doubt that gives rise to misgivings. Yet in saying this, they lied and acted unjustly.
Therefore, “their messengers said” to them, “Is there any doubt about Allah?” His existence is more evident and manifest than anything else. Whoever doubts Allah, “the Originator of the heavens and the earth,” to whom all things owe their existence, can have no confidence in any matter of knowledge—not even things perceived by the senses. The messengers therefore addressed them regarding Him as One about whom there can be no doubt and concerning whom uncertainty is wholly inappropriate. “He calls you” to what will benefit you and set your affairs right, “so that He may forgive your sins and grant you respite until an appointed term”; that is, so that He may reward you for responding to His call with reward in this world and the Hereafter. He did not call you in order to benefit from your worship; rather, its benefit returns to you.
They responded to their messengers as foolish and ignorant people do. “They said” to them, “You are only human beings like us”; that is, how, then, have you been favored over us by being made prophets and messengers? “You wish to turn us away from what our forefathers worshipped.” How can we abandon the views and way of our forefathers for yours? And how can we obey you when you are human beings like us?
“Then bring us some clear authority”; that is, a manifest argument and proof. What they meant was a proof of their own choosing; otherwise, it has already been stated that their messengers came to them with clear proofs.