Quran 17:59 · Al-Isra

The extraordinary incidents which took place in the lifetime of the prophets were of two kinds. The first kind was in the nature of general help offered to a prophet and his companions. This help was like a support from God. The second kind was that taking place at the demand of polytheists, namely, miracles. The Prophet Muhammad—the last Prophet—and his Companions were given divine succour on a number of occasions. But the miracles, given to the previous prophets, were not given to Prophet Muhammad inspite of the demands of his contemporaries. The reason was that everything has certain demands: those who demand extraordinary signs will have extraordinary responsibility given to them too. Furthermore, according to the law of God, those who do not accept faith, even after being shown such extraordinary signs as miracles, are subsequently destroyed, having invited God’s wrath and proved themselves deserving of God’s scourge. Now, since the Prophet Muhammad was the last Prophet and prophethood was going to be terminated with him, his addressees could not be dealt with in like manner, for in that case the entire community would have been wiped out by the divine scourge. Who would have remained then in the world to represent the Prophet? It was God’s special mercy to the addressees of the last Prophet that in spite of their demands, they were not given tangible miracles. Had their demands been acceded to, they too—after their denial—would have faced the same fate as that of the Thamud community.