They also made an earnest prayer, appealing to God to remove their suffering and asserting that they were now believers:

“Our Lord, relievep us of suffering, for truly we now believe.”

(44: 12.)

God sent them rain, and their land bloomed again. But it did not take them long to revert to their old, evil ways, behaving arrogantly and denying the truth.

Thus God caused them to suffer a most mighty strike at Badr, when no less than 70 of their brave warriors were killed and a similar number were taken captive by the Muslims.

Makkan Qur’anic revelations speak about God’s retribution in various ways. Sometimes the reference is made in general, unspecified terms, like:

“As for the unbelievers - in result of their [evil] deeds, sudden calamities will always befall them or will alight close to their homes, until God’s promise is fulfilled.”

(13: 31.)

“Hence, turn you aside for a while from those [unbelievers], and see them. In time, they will surely come to see.”

(37: 174-175.)

Such reports of future events, made as they were in the early days of Islam, when the Prophet and his companions were still in Makkah are most remarkable.

At the time, no one could have contemplated any prospect of war and meeting of armies and hosts, let alone their flight and defeat. Indeed, when the first of these verses was revealed, ᶜUmar wondered:

‘To which host does this verse refer?’ He later reported: ‘On the day of the Battle of Badr, I saw God’s Messenger reading it.’

On other occasions, the reference is more remarkable, as it specifies particular details.

A case in mind is that of the man who used to denounce the Qur’an and describe it as ‘fables of the ancient people’. The Qur’an says about this man, who many reports name as alWalīd ibn al-Mughīrah of the Makhzūm branch of Quraysh:

“We shall brand him on the snout.”

(68: 16.)

As the verse is worded, it may also be rendered as:

“We shall brand him with indelible disgrace.”

One wonders at these verses. Are they made up of letters and words? Or are they chains and handcuffs from which they can have no release?

Do you not see that ever since this judgement was slammed over their heads, they remained scattered all over the world, subjugated by other communities, without a state of their own upholding their cause?

Although they have amassed great financial wealth, to the extent that they control nearly half the world’s wealth, they remain in their Diaspora, unable to form for themselves even a small state.

In the Christian countries of the West, they are often subjected to different types of persecution and ultimate rejection.

In Muslim countries, traditionally the most hospitable of places, they are accepted only as a community subject to the law of the land, not as a ruling community.

Have you heard what they have been scheming of late? Their dreams have concentrated on making the Holy Land a place for their national home, where they hope to converge from different places of the world.

“Have they, perchance, a share in (God’s) dominion? If so, they would not give other people so much as [would fill] the groove of a date-stone.”

They may design and scheme, but God will foil their evil scheming, if He so wills. We have so far looked at examples of Qur’anic prophesies that penetrate through the thick curtains screening the near and distant future.

They even control the nature of events and their timing. Indeed as time passes, it brings only what confirms them in totality and detail, and whether they speak of something close or very far away.

When we look at all that the Qur’an includes of news, we find that Muhammad (peace be upon him) tackles something that lies beyond his own feelings and intellectual faculties, whether they relate to the past, present or future.

Indeed, when he speaks about the past, every evidence of history confirms what he says, and when he talks about the future, everything he says will inevitably come to pass. Furthermore, if he speaks about God, the angels and the realm that lies beyond the reach of human perception, we find confirmation of what he says in earlier Scriptures and the statements of earlier prophets.

He was right concerning the first incident, but wrong with regard to the second. They were innocent of the fabrication he accused them of having perpetrated. Moses (peace be upon him) said to the sage he met:

“You will find me patient, if God so wills, and I shall not disobey you in anything.”

He soon forgot his pledge and showed little patience. Indeed, he did not obey his orders at all.

Muhammad himself (peace be upon him) was subject to people’s attempts to give him false evidence so that he would issue an unjust verdict or defend a guilty person, thinking that he was innocent.

He only corrected himself when God, who knows all, gave him the right information. If anyone doubts this, let him read the following verses:

We have bestowed this Book on you from on high, setting forth the truth, so that you may judge between people in accordance with what God has taught you. Hence, do not contend with those who betray their trust. Seek God’s forgiveness, for God is indeed much-forgiving, merciful. And do not argue on behalf of those who are false to their own selves. Indeed God does not love those who betray their trust and persist in sinful action. They conceal their doings from men, but they cannot conceal them from God; for He is present with them when, in the darkness of the night, they agree all manner of sayings which displease Him.

An authentic report on the reason for the revelation of these verses says that a thief entered the place of an Anṣāri man called Rifāᶜah, forcing his entry and stealing all the food and weapons that were there.

In the morning, the Anṣāri looked for his belongings until he was certain that they were in a house belonging to the Ubayriq clan, some of whom were hypocrites.

He sent his nephew to complain to the Prophet, who told him:

“I will look into the matter.”

When that clan heard this, they came to the Prophet and said:

“Messenger of God, Qatādah ibn al-Nuᶜmān and his uncle Rifāᶜah have been accusing a certain family of our clan of theft, without evidence or proof, although that family are good Muslims.”

Qatādah later came to the Prophet who told him:

“You have been speaking about a Muslim family, who have been mentioned to me as people of piety, and accusing them of theft without evidence or proof.”

A person who is so unable to know the truth of what might have taken place between two people whom he has seen and heard in his own time and place is undoubtedly less able to know what took place in past history or what will take place in the future.

All that belongs to a different realm, the realm that lies beyond the reach of human perception.

As we approach the boundaries of that realm, insight and intelligence have no role.

The human mind becomes powerless. It might hit upon the truth once in every several cases where it would otherwise be wrong.

Moreover, when it happens to point to something right, there is no guarantee that it will remain free of any change.

Indeed, it may disappear by coincidence as it was hit upon by coincidence:

“Had it [i.e. the Qur’an] issued from anyone but God, they would surely have found in it many an inner contradiction.”