Tafseer of Taa-Haa · Taa-Haa · 20:133
And they say, "Why does he not bring us a sign from his Lord?" Has there not come to them evidence of what was in the former scriptures?
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the word of Allah, the Exalted: وَقَالُوا لَوْلا يَأْتِينَا بِآيَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّهِ أَوَلَمْ تَأْتِهِمْ بَيِّنَةُ مَا فِي الصُّحُفِ الأُولَى (And they say: Why does he not bring us a sign from his Lord? Has there not come to them the clear proof of what is in the former scriptures?) (133)
Allah, exalted be His praise, says: These polytheists, whose characteristics He described in the preceding verses, said: "Why does Muḥammad not bring us a sign from his Lord, just as Ṣāliḥ brought his people the she-camel, and ʿĪsā the raising of the dead, the healing of the man born blind and the leper?" Allah, exalted be His majesty, says: Has there not come to them the clear proof of what is in the Books before this Book, namely the reports about the earlier peoples — whom We destroyed because they asked for signs and then rejected those signs when they came — of how We hastened the punishment for them and brought down Our scourge upon them on account of their rejection of it? He says: what then would secure them, if the sign were to come, from undergoing the same fate as those peoples?
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the scholars of tafsīr also spoke.
Mention of who said that:
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — all on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word أَوَلَمْ تَأْتِهِمْ بَيِّنَةُ مَا فِي الصُّحُفِ الأُولَى : he said: "The Torah and the Gospel."
Al-Qāsim related to us, saying: Al-Ḥusayn related to us, saying: Ḥajjāj related to me, on the authority of Ibn Jurayj, on the authority of Mujāhid — to the same effect.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His word أَوَلَمْ تَأْتِهِمْ بَيِّنَةُ مَا فِي الصُّحُفِ الأُولَى : "The Books that have remained from the earlier peoples, in whose dwellings they walk about."
