And if you are in doubt concerning what We have revealed to Our servant then bring a sūra like it; and call your witnesses besides God if you are truthful. And if you do not and you will not then fear the fire whose fuel is men and stones prepared for disbelievers. He covered the eyes of outsiders so that they did not see His beloved ﷺ and they wandered in the wadis of conjecture because they had lost the light of solicitude. When the Messenger brought signs to them and made miracles appear it only increased their doubts and suspicions. This is the way of those who have turned away from the Real سبحانه. The illumination of proofs only increases their blindness to the truth. God most high said But signs and warners do not avail a folk who will not believe [10:101]. In order to bring them to admit the proof He informed them of their inabil- ity to compete with the miracle He gave them in the QurÌān [a miracle] which was triumphant over humankind from the first to the last. He made them acknowledge that even if they were to make common cause among themselves and strengthen themselves with others like them and exert their utmost efforts and stratagems they would not be able to bring a sūra like any sūra of the QurÌān. He said “If you do not” and then stated that they could not and would not do it for He said “and you will not.” It is as if He said “Look to yourselves and be wary of the idolatry that leads to the punishment of the fire whose fuel is men and stones.” If stones with all their hardness cannot withstand this fire how can men with their weakness bear itḍ When the hearts of the believers became terribly concerned from hearing mention of the fire He strengthened them and said “prepared for disbelievers.” In that is good news for the believers. This is the way of the Real سبحانه. When He causes fear in His enemies he brings glad tidings to His friends. Just as the deception of the disbelievers vanishes when it encounters the miracles of the prophets ḍ similarly the claims of the confused disappear when the lights of the truthful appear. The mark of the one who makes false claims is the return of driving cries rujūʿ al-zajr to the heart. The mark of the one with truthful intent is the occurrence of the [divine] subjuga- tion wuqūʿ al-qahr of the heart. It is a rare individual who can separate and distinguish between [these two types of occurrences in the heart].
