“We certainly gave Moses nine clear signs”—up to His words:

“You know well that none but the Lord of the heavens and the earth has sent these down as clear proofs”—to the end of the verse.

Those who disbelieve in the messengers—from among the people of Noah, ʿĀd, Thamūd, the peoples of Lot, Shuʿayb, Abraham and Moses, and the polytheists among the Arabs, Indians, Romans, Berbers, Turks, Greeks, Chaldeans and all other nations, earlier and later—follow their conjectures and desires. They turn away from Allah’s reminder, which He has given them from Himself, as He said to them when Adam was sent down from Paradise:

“When guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance will have no fear, nor will they grieve.”

“But those who disbelieve and reject Our signs will be the inhabitants of the Fire, remaining there forever.”

Elsewhere, He says:

“When guidance comes to you from Me, whoever follows My guidance will neither go astray nor suffer.”

“But whoever turns away from My remembrance will certainly have a life of hardship”—to the end of the verse.

In another passage:

“If messengers from among yourselves come to you, recounting My signs to you.”

Yet, although Allah has sent down no authority for what they follow, and “they follow nothing but conjecture and what their souls desire,” they claim to possess reason, sound judgment, rational inference and illustrative analogies. They call themselves sages and philosophers, and lay claim to dialectic and speculative theology, power, authority and wealth. They describe the followers of the messengers as fools, lowly people and misguided, and mock them. Allah Most High said: