قَالُوا۟ يَٰهُودُ مَا جِئْتَنَا بِبَيِّنَةٍ وَمَا نَحْنُ بِتَارِكِىٓ ءَالِهَتِنَا عَن قَوْلِكَ وَمَا نَحْنُ لَكَ بِمُؤْمِنِينَ
71:24.
Commentary:
It is strange that a people who themselves followed the most unreasonable practice of setting up equals to God and of associating partners with Him should have demanded from Hud evidence in support of his monotheistic teachings. The onus of proof, in fact, lay on those who practised shirk and not on those who denied it. They themselves practised shirkfor which they possessed no reasonable basis; yet when arguments were given in refutation of their creed they denied them as if they were great believers in arguments and never accepted anything without them.
The words, merely because of thy saying, are expressive of great contempt. The opponents of Hud meant to say that they could not give up their deities for the sake of such a contemptible person as he. As a matter of fact, evil-minded persons are ever wont to put a wrong construction even on sincere motives. Hud’s opponents misunder-stood his exhortations and thought that his real object was not to preach the truth but to gain mastery over them. So they replied by saying that they would not forsake their idols for his sake and were not going to obey him.
71:24.