Chapter 2: Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow), verses 118-121

Translation:

The ignorant ask: ‘Why does God not speak to us or give us a sign?’ The same demand was made by those before them: their hearts are all alike. But to those whose faith is firm, We have already revealed Our signs. We have sent you with truth as a bearer of good tidings and a warner: you shall not be questioned about the people of hell. You will please neither the Christians nor the Jews unless you follow their faith. Say: ‘The guidance of God is the only guidance. And if, after all the knowledge you have been given, you yield to their desires, there shall be none to help or protect you from the wrath of God. Those to whom we have given the Book, and who read it as it ought to be read, truly believe in it; those who deny it shall assuredly be the losers.

Tafsir (Commentary):

All those whom God has sent to preach truth on earth have been confronted with a particular form of reaction. “If you are God’s envoy,” people say to them, “why are you not blessed with great worldly treasures?” These people can only think in worldly terms themselves, so they expect prophets to come up to their materialistic standards. They cannot conceive of someone who is not endowed with worldly grandeur being God’s messenger. This is the reason the prophets of God have had to face opposition throughout the ages. How, people think, could a great God, whose kingdom extends from the earth to the furthest expanse of the heavens, have chosen such an ordinary person as His messenger? The greatness of God Himself is indeed incorporated in the lives and teachings of His prophets, but in a spiritual, not a material, form. The prophets’ every word and deed are based on truth, and are manifestations of God’s signs. But such signs cannot be seen, so they do not become a part of the consciousness of materialistic people. Their minds are moulded in such a manner that they acknowledge only tangible, visible signs of greatness; the invisible, but intensely meaningful signs that God gives His prophets mean nothing to them.

In ancient times the Jews and Christians had been the true followers of divinely revealed religion on earth. When they went into decline, however, their religion took on a communal rather than a divine form: piety lay in belonging to their community and impiety in being separate from it; their sole criterion for judging between truth and falsehood was a person’s relation to his own community. This communal, sectarian attitude prevented them from accepting true, unadulterated religion when it came to them. True religion can be accepted only by those who are alive to their true, human natures. Those who have forsaken natural religion for artificial dogmas cannot be expected to respond when they are roused to the call of their own true natures.