Page 291
wa-qālū lan nuʾmina laka ḥattā tafjura lanā mina l-ʾarḍi yanbūʿan
They say, ‘We will not believe you until you make a spring gush forth for us from the ground.
— Ali Quli Qarai
17Al-Isrā’الإسراءVerse 90 of 111
The Night Journey17. Al-Isrā’الإسراء
Al Isrā’
The Night Journey
MeccanVerse 90 of 111
Surah Isra’ – Verses 90 - 91
90. “And they said: “We shall never believe in you till you make a spring to gush forth from the earth for us,”
91. “Or till you should have a garden of date-palms and grapes in the midst of which you cause streams to flow forth,”
The Arabic term /yanbū‘/ refers to a fountain which will never dry up and which will always gush. The pagans, who rejected the miraculous nature of the Qur’an, made their embracing the belief conditional upon attainment of some material gains, asking the holy Prophet (S) for some undue expectations. They neglected the fact that the prophets would perform miracles so as to justify their prophetic mission. This is done not for meeting the whimsical demands of the obstinate people or for the sake of their entertainment or escaping from effort and endeavour.
In fact, undue expectation, callousness, obstinacy, seeking pretexts, unawareness of the aims, and rudeness, all intermingled with one another so as to put illogical requests to the Prophet (S), like a fountain, gardens, rivers, collapse and fall of the skies, summoning of the Lord and of the angels, golden houses, flight into skies, and a private letter from the Lord. Anyway, the pagans of Mecca stated:
We do not confirm your prophetic mission unless you split the ground of Mecca which is scarce in water resources and make a fountain emerge out of it, which gashes.
The verse says:
“And they said: “We shall never believe in you till you make a spring to gush forth from the earth for us,”
Or they demanded from him a garden which had got plenty of date-palms and grape trees, covered by them, amidst which streams flow so as to water trees beneath them, little knowing that the goal of the prophets had been people’s guidance and leading them to monotheism, though some groups thought of gardens, gold and silver while such requests and expectations were not logical. The verse says:
“Or till you should have a garden of date-palms and grapes in the midst of which you cause streams to flow forth,”