Surah Al-Israa (17) — Ayah 93

(Ayah 93) ➊ {اَوْ يَكُوْنَ لَكَ بَيْتٌ مِّنْ زُخْرُفٍ … : ’’ زُخْرُفٍ ‘‘} Originally, it means adornment; here, this word is used in the sense of gold, because among the things used for adornment, gold is very precious and beautiful. {’’ تَرْقٰى ‘‘ ’’رَقٰي يَرْقِيْ رُقْيَةً ‘‘} (ض) To perform Ruqyah, and {’’ رَقِيَ يَرْقٰي رُقِيًّا ‘‘} (ع) To ascend.
➋ { قُلْ سُبْحَانَ رَبِّيْ …:} Here, the Quran mentions six demands of the disbelievers, within which there are several other demands. It is said, "My Lord is free from every defect and weakness; He can do all this, but according to His own will. As for making demands from me, I am merely a human who conveys the message. Can you tell of any human who possesses the power to perform such acts, and then I have no authority, nor is anything from myself; I am merely Allah's Messenger, that is, sent to convey His message and subject to His command, so how can I bring these things without His permission?" Imam Razi says that for the truthfulness of a Messenger, one miracle is sufficient, and you have been given the miracle of the Quran. After this, if multiple miracles are made the standard of truth, then this series would never end; therefore, the Prophet (peace be upon him) and all previous Messengers, on such occasions, excused themselves by saying that this is Allah's work, we are merely humans and Messengers.

93. 1 The original meaning of زُخْرُف is adornment. مَزِخَرَفُ refers to an adorned thing. But here its meaning is gold.

93. 2 That is, each one of us could read it clearly by himself.

93. 3 The meaning is that my Lord possesses all kinds of power; if He wills, He can fulfill your demands in an instant with the word 'كُنْ'. But as far as I am concerned, I am (like you) a human being. Is any human being capable of the things you are demanding from me? Yes, along with this, I am also a Messenger of Allah. But the duty of a Messenger is only to convey Allah's message, and that I have conveyed and am conveying. Showing miracles at people's demands is not a part of Messengership. However, if Allah wills, for the sake of proving the truth of Messengership, a miracle or two may be shown, but if miracles start being shown according to people's wishes, then this process will never end—every person will desire to see a new miracle according to his own wish, and the Messenger will remain occupied with this task, and the real work of preaching and invitation will come to a halt. Therefore, the occurrence of miracles is only possible by Allah's will, and I too am not authorized to interfere in His will.

93. Or you have a house of gold, or you ascend into the sky—and even then, we will not believe in your ascension until you bring down to us a book [110] that we can read." Say, "Glory be to my Lord! I am only a human [111] messenger."

[110]
The Sensory Miracles Demanded by the Disbelievers of Makkah:

In these verses, the demands of the disbelievers of Makkah are collectively mentioned, which they repeatedly made in the form of requests for sensory miracles as proof of prophethood. They were not at all justified in making such demands because they had already witnessed many miracles that were clear proofs of your ﷺ prophethood. For example, despite repeated challenges, they could not produce speech like the Quran. The incident of the splitting of the moon happened before their very eyes. In connection with the event of Isra, they had questioned him and received answers about the structure of Bayt al-Maqdis. All these things were sufficient for their inner satisfaction. But, as the saying goes, "a bad habit finds many excuses," they kept making new and newer demands, some of which were as follows: that you cause springs of water to flow here so that our water shortage is resolved, or that you remove the mountains from here so that we have some open land to live in, and in it, fields, date palms, and grape gardens may be produced; or, as you keep threatening us, drop a piece of the sky upon us so that neither we remain nor you, and this daily repetition comes to an end; or, regarding the angel you say descends upon you, at least let us see him; or, if you cannot do good for us, then at least let your own house become of gold or golden; or, before us, you ascend to the sky, and when you descend, there should be a book in your hands addressed to us, saying, "This is truly a prophet, and believe in him," then only can we believe in your prophethood.

[111]
The Response to the Demands:

Allah Almighty gave a reply to all these absurd demands of the disbelievers of Makkah in a single brief sentence, that is, you ﷺ should say to these people that when did I ever say to you that I possess divine powers and am all-powerful? All such things are within the power and authority of Allah Almighty. If I had claimed divinity before you, then you would have been justified in making such demands of me, but I am only claiming that I am a human being like you. However, Allah Almighty has certainly made me His Messenger and envoy. If you want to test me, then examine this message, test my truthfulness, my previous life is before you, point out any flaw you see in me. After all, what connection do your demands have with my claim of prophethood?