Page 80 - The Arrogance of Satan

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THE ARROGANCE OF SATAN

perverted are the opinions they form when they are called to
the truth:
The chiefs of those of his people who were disbelievers
said, "This is nothing but a human being like
yourselves who simply wants to gain ascendancy over

you. If Allah had wanted He would have sent angels
down. We never heard of anything like this among our
ancestors, the earlier peoples." (Surat al-Mu' minun: 24)
The chiefs of his people-those who were disbelievers
and denied the encounter of the hereafter and whom
We had given opulence in the world-said, "This is
nothing but a human being like yourselves who eats
what you eat and drinks what you drink." (Surat al-Mu'
minun: 33)

The chiefs of the nations demanded of the messengers
that they perform miracles. The fact that the messengers'
represented the chosen of Allah, and their superiority in
wisdom, knowledge, morals, virtue, and spirituality, hurt
their pride. Since they were not disposed to accept this
reality, they accused the messengers of being merely ordinary
men and required them to perform miracles to prove
otherwise. The Prophets' possessing human traits, that is,
eating, drinking and so on, was surprising to them. In
addition, they made it a pretext for their disbelief. As a
matter of fact, even the performance of miracles would not
have helped these obstinate people to believe:
They said, "No matter what kind of Sign you bring us
to bewitch us, we will not believe in you." (Surat al-A'
raf: 132)