Tafsir of Surah Ar-Ra'd - Verse 7

The Idolators ask for a Miracle

Allah states that out of their disbelief and stubbornness, the idolators asked why is not a miracle sent down to the Messenger from his Lord, just like the earlier Messengers For instance, the disbelievers were being stubborn when they asked the Prophet to turn As-Safa into gold, to remove the mountains from around them, and to replace them with green fields and rivers. Allah said,

وَمَا مَنَعَنَآ أَن نُّرْسِلَ بِالاٌّيَـتِ إِلاَّ أَن كَذَّبَ بِهَا الاٌّوَّلُونَ

(And nothing stops Us from sending the Ayat but that the people of old denied them.)17:59 Allah said here,

إِنَّمَآ أَنتَ مُنذِرُ

(You are only a warner), and your duty is only to convey Allah's Message which He has ordered you,

لَّيْسَ عَلَيْكَ هُدَاهُمْ وَلَـكِنَّ اللَّهَ يَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُ

(Not upon you is their guidance, but Allah guides whom He wills.)2:272 Allah said;

وَلِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ هَادٍ

(And to every people there is a guide.) meaning that for every people there has been a caller, according to Ibn `Abbas and as narrated from him by Ali bin Abi Talhah. Allah said in a similar Ayah, a

وَإِن مِّنْ أُمَّةٍ إِلاَّ خَلاَ فِيهَا نَذِيرٌ

(And there never was a nation but a warner had passed among them.)35:24 Similar has reported from Qatadah and `Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd.

اللَّهُ يَعْلَمُ مَا تَحْمِلُ كُلُّ أُنثَى وَمَا تَغِيضُ الاٌّرْحَامُ وَمَا تَزْدَادُ وَكُلُّ شَىْءٍ عِندَهُ بِمِقْدَارٍ - عَـلِمُ الْغَيْبِ وَالشَّهَـدَةِ الْكَبِيرُ الْمُتَعَالِ

(that is, in order to raise an objection against the prophethood of Sayyidna Muhammad al-Mustafa ﷺ ، they say) 'Why has the specific miracle they demand has not been shown by him?' The answer is clear. The showing of a miracle is not within the control of a prophet or messenger. Instead, that is directly an act of God. It is He who elects to show a miracle, of whatever kind, at any time, and in His wisdom - all as deter-mined by Him alone. He is not restricted by or burdened with anyone's demand or desire. Therefore, it was said: إِنَّمَا أَنتَ مُنذِرٌ (You are but a warner), that is, the Holy Prophet ﷺ is there only to warn disbelievers against Divine punishment - showing miracles is not his mission.

Said in the last sentence of the verse was: وَلِكُلِّ قَوْمٍ هَادٍ ۔ It means that there have been guides for every people among past communities. You are not the lone prophet. The standard mission of all prophets was to guide their people, warn them of the punishment of Allah, but none of them were given the power and control to show miracles. It is Allah who shows miracles of His choice whenever He chooses to do so.

Is it Necessary that a Prophet appears among every People and in every Country?

The statement: 'And for every people there is a guide' proves that no people and no region can remain unvisited by those who call towards Allah Ta ala and guide people to the straight path. It may be some prophet himself, or could be someone propagating the call of his deputy - as it appears in Surah Y’ Sin where the initial sending of two persons as de-puties to the prophet of the time to a certain people has been mentioned. Sent to carry the call and give guidance, these two persons were prophets in their own right. Then, also mentioned there is the sending of a third person to help and support them in their mission.

Therefore, this verse does not make it necessary that some prophet or messenger of Allah has also appeared in India. However, it stands proved that learned people who carried the call of the prophet and told people about his teachings came to this part of the world as well. Then, it is already common knowledge that many such 'guides' have also appeared here.

Upto this point, in the first three verses cited above, there was the answer of the doubts expressed by the deniers of prophethood. In the fourth verse (8), we see a return to the principal theme of Tauhid (The Oneness of Allah) which started appearing since the beginning of the Surah.

Today, throughout the world, there are more than a billion people who accept the Prophet Muhammad as a prophet of God. But in his lifetime the people of Makkah could not understand that God had made him His prophet. The reason for this was that in the preliminary stage, his prophethood was a controversial issue. But now, in this advanced stage of history, his prophethood is no longer controversial. It is now as easy to believe in the prophethood as it was difficult to believe in it at an earlier, controversial stage. The standards by which the people of Makkah lived were those of wealth, power and popularity. By these standards the Prophet Muhammad did not appear to them to be in any way exceptional, so they wanted him to have some extraordinary sign which would be a definite proof of his prophethood. In response to this it was said that these people demanded something which was not in accordance with God’s plan and as such it would remain beyond human reach. The present world is a place of trial. Here guidance is not available in the form of such clear signs that there is no scope for human doubt, because if that were so, the purpose of the divine test would be defeated. Here the only possibility is for man to take guidance in the shape of ‘information’ and accept it after examining it. One who does not pass this test will never have his share of guidance. God raises in every community a man from among them so that he may deliver the message in a language familiar to them. This arrangement was made for the convenience of the different communities. But it often happened that the communities were affected in the opposite manner: they rejected God’s prophets. Their vision was clouded by the ordinary nature of the messenger. Their eyes could not see the extraordinary nature of the message itself.