Translation:
"Or you have a house adorned with gold, or you mount a ladder right into the skies. 2296 No, we shall not even believe in your mounting until you send down to us a book that we can read." 2297 Say: "Glory to my Lord! Am I anything but a man,- a messenger?" 2298
"Or you have a house adorned with gold, or you mount a ladder right into the skies. 2296 No, we shall not even believe in your mounting until you send down to us a book that we can read." 2297 Say: "Glory to my Lord! Am I anything but a man,- a messenger?" 2298
Translation:
or thou have a house [made] of gold, or thou ascend to heaven - but nay, we would not [even] believe in thy ascension unless thou bring down to us [from heaven] a writing which we [ourselves] could read! 109 Say thou, [O Prophet:] "Limitless in His glory is my Sustainer! 110 Am I, then, aught but a mortal man, an apostle?"
or thou have a house [made] of gold, or thou ascend to heaven - but nay, we would not [even] believe in thy ascension unless thou bring down to us [from heaven] a writing which we [ourselves] could read! 109 Say thou, [O Prophet:] "Limitless in His glory is my Sustainer! 110 Am I, then, aught but a mortal man, an apostle?"
Commentary:
109 A reply to this demand of the unbelievers is found in verse 7 of Al-An'am, revealed according to Suyuti -shortly after the present surah. But the allusion to, this and the preceding "conditions" is not merely historical: it illustrates a widely prevalent, psychologically contradictory attitude of mind -a strange mixture of prima-facie scepticism and primitive credulity which makes belief in a prophetic message dependent on the prophet's "performing miracles" (cf. 6:37 and 109 and 7:203). Since the only miracle granted by God to Muhammad is the Qur'an itself (see the first part of verse 59 of this surah, as well as note 71 above), he is bidden, in the next passage, to declare that these demands are irrelevant and, by implication, frivolous.
110 I.e., "miracles are in the power of God alone" (cf. 6:109 and the corresponding note 94).
109 A reply to this demand of the unbelievers is found in verse 7 of Al-An'am, revealed according to Suyuti -shortly after the present surah. But the allusion to, this and the preceding "conditions" is not merely historical: it illustrates a widely prevalent, psychologically contradictory attitude of mind -a strange mixture of prima-facie scepticism and primitive credulity which makes belief in a prophetic message dependent on the prophet's "performing miracles" (cf. 6:37 and 109 and 7:203). Since the only miracle granted by God to Muhammad is the Qur'an itself (see the first part of verse 59 of this surah, as well as note 71 above), he is bidden, in the next passage, to declare that these demands are irrelevant and, by implication, frivolous.
110 I.e., "miracles are in the power of God alone" (cf. 6:109 and the corresponding note 94).
2296 Cf. 6:35 about the ladder in the skies.
2297 Cf. 6:7 for the foolish idea of materialistic sceptics that a spiritual revelation could come down from the heavens on a piece of parchment that they can touch.
2298 A prophet or messenger of Allah is a man at the command of Allah, and not to satisfy the disingenuous whims and fancies of Unbelievers. Miracles greater than any that their foolish fancies could devise were before them. The Qur'an was such a miracle, and it is a standing miracle that lasts through the ages. Why did they not believe? The real reason was spite and jealousy like that of Iblis. See next verse.