—they have categorically, without the slightest hesitation, claimed that if the requested sign were to appear they would believe and give it full credence. Such a claim turns reality on its head and states the very opposite of what lies in their hearts, for even if every single sign they have proposed were brought before them, they would still not believe—unless Allah so wills.
Allah has described this mindset of the deniers in numerous passages of the Quran, such as His words: “They said, ‘We will never believe you until you cause a spring to gush forth for us from the earth’” (al-Israʾ 17:90); and: “Even if We were to send down the angels to them, and the dead were to speak to them, and We were to gather everything before them face-to-face, they still would not believe…” (al-Anʿam 6:111), and so on to the end of the verse.
Their demand in fact amounts to accusing Allah of impotence and frivolity, as though He had sent a messenger without furnishing him with signs sufficient to demonstrate his truthfulness or with proofs strong enough to refute his opponents. Such a notion contradicts divine wisdom and clashes with the very purpose for which Allah dispatched His Messenger.
Hence this attitude is a graver act of unbelief and criminality—far worse than their open polytheism and flagrant disobedience. Only the elite leaders among them shouldered the burden of this sin. Although they recognized the Prophet’s honesty without the least obscurity, they sought by such proposals to turn the masses and the rabble away from listening to him. For that reason Allah brands them with the stamp of disgrace after every challenge and every proposed sign, having first declared His own transcendence above the deficiencies they attribute to Him.
Thus, in Surat al-Israʾ, after listing the signs they demanded, He says: “Say, ‘Glorified is my Lord!’” (al-Israʾ 17:93), and then: “On the Day of Resurrection We shall gather them upon their faces—blind, dumb, and deaf” (al-Israʾ 17:97).
In Surat al-ʿAnkabut He says:
“Thus We have sent down the Book to you. Those to whom We gave the Scripture believe in it, and among these people are some who believe in it as well; none denies Our verses except the unbelievers. You did not recite any book before this, nor did you write it with your right hand; otherwise, the falsifiers would have doubted. Rather, it is clear verses preserved in the breasts of those who have been given knowledge; none rejects Our verses except the wrongdoers. And they say, ‘Why have no signs been sent down upon him from his Lord?’ Say, ‘The signs are only with Allah, and I am only a clear warner.’ Is it not enough for them that We have sent down to you the Book which is recited to them? Surely in that there is mercy and a reminder for a people who believe. Say, ‘Allah is sufficient as a witness between me and you; He knows whatever is in the heavens and the earth. Those who believe in falsehood and disbelieve in Allah—it is they who are the losers’” (al-ʿAnkabut 29:47–52).
Reflect further on the particular signs they stipulated and you will see that they are not, in truth, genuine proofs. Even supposing they were granted, they would resemble the coercive manifestations that appear at moments of dire necessity—signs after which believing no longer benefits a person, for faith would have turned into mere eyewitnessing. The faith that truly benefits is faith in the unseen.
Just as Allah alone possesses the right to judge between His servants in their religion and their mutual claims—with no judgment counting except His—and just as anyone who dares to say, “The ruling ought to be such-and-such,” intrudes upon Allah’s sanctity and ordinances, so too the evidences by which His judgments are established belong to Him alone. Whoever presumes to dictate which sign must be provided has, in effect, laid claim to a share in the Lord’s authority and has contested Him regarding the ways by which He guides and instructs His servants. “Who is more unjust than one who forges a lie against Allah, or says, ‘It has been revealed to me,’ when nothing has been revealed to him, or who says, ‘I will bring down the like of what Allah has sent down’?” (al-Anʿam 6:93).