Surah al-`Ankabut (The Spider ) 29 : 24

Explanatory Note

After this intervening address aimed at everyone who denies faith generally, and at Abraham’s people by implication, the sūrah reports his people’s reply to his call. It is a very strange and singular reply, one which shows the arrogance of disbelief and oppression that relies on force and authority. To kill or burn a man is their only response to a simple, clear and logical call with which he addressed their hearts and minds.

How could Abraham alone and deprived of all power stand up to such arrogant brutality? Therefore, God intervened in a direct and open manner, with a miracle no human could have expected: “God saved him from the fire.” Indeed his saving in this miraculous way should have been seen as clear evidence confirming his message, but only a person whose heart is ready to embrace faith looks at it in this light. Abraham’s people, however, did not believe despite this miracle. This shows, then, that miracles do not give guidance. Instead, it is necessary to have an open mind, one willing to accept the truth and divine guidance: “In this there are signs for people who believe.”

The first of these signs was Abraham’s saving from the fire. The second was the impotence of tyranny to harm just one man standing alone, when God wanted him saved. The fact that miracles do not ensure acceptance of God’s guidance by hardened hearts was the third sign. In confirmation of this fact one only needs to look at the history of divine messages, and reflect on the way people’s hearts change, and also on the factors that enable people to accept guidance as well as those that leave them astray.