[2:118] And they, who do not know, say, 'Why does God not speak to us?; Why does a sign not come to us?' So, spoke those before them, the like of what they say; their hearts are much alike. Yet We have made clear the signs to a people who are certain.
The speaking (kalām) of God (s) is connected to all created things in their essences (ʿayān) and their traces (āthār) by the command to 'be' (amr al-takwīn) and includes those who have been charged [with the law] (mukallafūn) by the prescriptive command (amr al-taklīf). But whoever lacks the ear of comprehension is deaf to hearing the Real. He (s) addressed some among the People of the Book and they heard His address, but they were not able to bear it and, after they recognized the gravity of the signs, they engaged in distortion and alteration. Included in the signs which He made manifest were what removes the defect of anything other [than Him] (al-ʿilla min al-aghyār) and quenches the thirst from things that are better (al-ghulla min al-akhyār). But what proofs, even if they were plain and clear, would suffice those to whom wretchedness is deserved and has already come?