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wa-law ʾannā ʾahlaknāhum bi-ʿadhābin min qablihī la-qālū rabbanā law-lā ʾarsalta ʾilaynā rasūlan fa-nattabiʿa ʾāyātika min qabli ʾan nadhilla wa-nakhzā
Had We destroyed them with a punishment before it, they would have surely said, ‘Our Lord! Why did You not send us an apostle so that we might have followed Your signs before we were abased and disgraced?’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Ta Ha – Verse 134
134. “And had We destroyed them with a punishment before him (the Messenger), they would certainly have said: ‘Our Lord! Why did You not send us a Messenger so that we might have followed Your Signs before that we were humiliated and disgraced.”
The mission of the prophets to prophethood has been for completing the argument so that people may not pretext their own unawareness. Therefore, these seekers of pretexts are not some people who seek the Truth. They are ceaselessly in the thought of seeking a new pretext, even in a state that, as Allah says:
But, now that this great holy Prophet (S) with this magnificent Book, the Qur’an, has come to them, every day they express a new vain statement and, in order to escape from the truth, they bring a new excuse.