Tafsir of Al-Isra 17:89

{And We have certainly diversified}: We have repeated and reiterated.

{for the people in this Qur’an from every example}: From every meaning that is like a proverb in its strangeness and beauty.

{But most of the people refused except disbelief}: Al-Kufur here means denial (al-juhud).

If you ask: How is it permissible to say “fa-aba akthar al-nas illa kufuran” (most people refused except disbelief), when it is not permissible to say “darabtu illa Zaydan” (I hit except Zayd)?

I reply: Because aba (refused) is interpreted as having the meaning of negation. It is as if it were said: "They were not satisfied with anything except disbelief."

{And they said, "We will not believe you until you break open for us from the earth a spring. Or [until] you have a garden of palm trees and grapes and make rivers gush forth within them in force. Or you make the sky fall upon us in fragments as you have claimed or you bring Allah and the angels before [us]. 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 we may read." Say, "Exalted is my Lord! Was I ever but a human messenger?"}