The Nabi was consumed with the passion to reform the people
and to induce them to accept the truth which he had placed before
them. Their insistent demand that he should work miracles to
convince them, made him despondent. On such occasions, the
Qur'an counsels him to remain firm and not to give way to despair.
Sometimes, he might have thought that if only he possessed the
power to work miracles, he could quickly have persuaded the people
to accept his teaching and follow the right path. The Qur'an did not
leave even such a remote thought unanswered:
If their aversion (to the truth) is grievous to thee, then, if thou can,
seek a way down into the earth or a ladder into the sky that thou may
bring to them a portent (to convince them all). If Allah willed, He
could have brought them all together to the guidance; so be not thou
of the ignorant (6:35).
God wants men to see and accept the truth through
understanding and not dogmatically and irrationally:
Those who do not use their intellect, the matter remains confused to
them (10:100).
The Qur'an calls upon men to apply their minds to its teaching, to
strive to grasp its meaning and rationale. If they remain
unresponsive to the call, the Qur'an refuses to stoop to irrational
methods of influencing their minds. It would rather leave them to
follow the wrong path, if they have chosen it freely, than consent to
any kind of compulsion, however well-intentioned, to lead them to
the right path. Greatness may be thrust on some but goodness can
be thrust on none. All that the Qur'an does is, it sounds the warning,
time and again, that if the thought-provoking faculties are
suppressed for long, they would ultimately lose their power to kindle
the pulse of thought. It says:
Those who just go on rejecting the truth (without trying to understand
it) it is all one for them whether you warn them (against the
consequences of their actions) or not. They will not accept the truth.
(As a result of their obstinacy, the law of Allah) has sealed their hearing
and hearts and on their eyes is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom
(for they saw no reason) (2:6-7).
Those who possessed reason and did not use it to acquire true
knowledge and to gain an understanding of the Revelation are
denounced as the vilest of men and contempt is poured on them:
And We have struck out for men in this Qur'an all kinds of similitudes
Reason and Eiman 119