Overview (Verses 54 - 56)

Why Reject God’s Guidance?
 
They could certainly have escaped the fire and all punishment, had they only opened their hearts to the Qur’ān and not opposed the truth it lays down. God certainly gave them all sorts of examples, covering all situations and circumstances: “We have indeed given in this Qur’ān many facets to every kind of lesson for mankind. But man is, above all else, always given to contention.” (Verse 54) The sūrah describes man here as ‘a thing’. The literal translation of the above sentence reads: “But of all things, man is the most contentious.” It chooses such expression in order to encourage man to be less arrogant and to feel that he is one of God’s countless creatures, although he is the worst in argument and contention, after God has given solid, irrefutable argument, clearly expounded in the Qur’ān.
 
The sūrah then documents the false arguments which the unbelievers, who represent the majority of mankind, have sought to provide: What is there to keep people from accepting the faith now that guidance has come to them, and from seeking forgiveness from their Lord, unless it be that they are waiting for the fate of the [sinful] people of ancient times to befall them as well, or for the suffering to be brought before their eyes? (Verse 55) They have received guidance in plenty, which should have been sufficient for them to believe and follow God’s orders. But they demanded for themselves the sort of suffering that befell nations of old. They made such a demand thinking that God’s punishment would never overtake them, or they did so in mockery. Sometimes they modified their demands, asking for the punishment to be shown directly to them. That, they argued, would prove what the Prophets preached and then they would believe in them.
 
Answering such demands is not a matter for God’s messengers to decide. God’s rule that applied to past communities meant that when miracles were given and people continued to disbelieve, they were destroyed. To do this or to cause a scourge to overwhelm people are matters which only God determines. His messengers have a different duty, which is to bring happy news and to warn: “We send Our messengers only as bearers of good news and as warners. But with false arguments the unbelievers seek to confute the truth. They make My revelations and warnings a target for their mockery.” (Verse 56)