It is mentioned in Tafsir Imam Hasan Askari (a.s.) that when the following verse was revealed:
ثُمَّ قَسَتْ قُلُوبُكُمْ مِنْ بَعْدِ ذٰلِكَ فَهِيَ كَالْحِجَارَةِ أَوْ أَشَدُّ قَسْوَةً
“Then your hearts hardened after that, so that they were like rocks, rather worse in hardness…”147
…the Jews found it very painful and they came to him respectfully and said: O Muhammad, you speak ill of us and what you claim about our hearts is quite wrong. Though Allah knows that we are good; we fast, give alms and help the poor.
His Eminence (S) said: A good deed is one performed only for Allah and according to His command. If it is done to show off ones wealth and status, or to oppose Allah’s apostle, it is not a good deed; it is only a mischief. One who commits such acts will be involved in nothing but trouble and Allah will subject him to a severe punishment in the Hereafter.
The Jews said: O Muhammad, this is what you say; but we say that whatever we do is to destroy your name, finish your rulership and make your companions separated from you. It is a religious war for us and we hope that Allah will give us great reward for it. At the minimum we can say that you and we, both are alike in our claims.
Now tell us what excellence you have over us? His Eminence (S) replied: O Jews! Indeed, in the matter of claims, both, the party of truth and the party of falsehood, are equal; but Allah’s proofs show the difference between both. They falsify the party of falsehood and confirm those who are righteous. And Muhammad, the Prophet of Allah never becomes aggrieved with your ignorant statements and neither does he compel you to accept his prophethood without evidence. He establishes such a divine proof, which you cannot defeat.
You cannot escape from its imminent consequences. If Muhammad (S) shows any sign from himself you will be in doubt and say it is all false. He has deceived us or has done it by taking others’ help. But when you yourself ask according to your choice, you will not be able to say thus. Whatever you request, will come before your eyes. So that the excuses of infidels would be finished and insight of believers increase.
The Jews said: O Muhammad, you have said justly. If you fulfill the promise you made and you fail to bring what we request, you will become helpless to give up your claim of prophethood, you will have to enter our community and submit to the commands of Taurat. His Eminence (S) said: Making threats is of no use; truth will expose your real condition. Ask whatever you want, so that no excuse remains for you.
They said: O Muhammad, you think that we have no intention to help the poor and weak? And that our hearts are harder than rocks and more obedient to Allah? Let us go to one of the mountains and ask it to testify your claim and our falsehood. If it gives evidence in your support, it would become incumbent on us to start following you; if it falsifies you or remains quiet, we will know that you are a liar and you fight to fulfill your selfish desire.
His Eminence (S) said: Very well, come, let us go to the mountain and ask for its testimony. They went to a mountain on the outskirts of the town and Jews said: O Muhammad, ask this mountain to testify. His Eminence (S) addressed it: O mountain! For the sake of Muhammad and his purified progeny (by the auspiciousness of whose name Allah made His empyrean light on the shoulders of eight angels though before that numerous angels could not move it; and by those names Allah forgave the mistake of Adam (a.s.) and returned his original status.
And for the sake of those names, Allah sent Idris (a.s.) to the abode of Paradise.) I ask you in the name of those blessed ones that you give the testimony for Muhammad (S) that Allah has entrusted you with, which has the mention of his confirmation about the hardness of their hearts and their denial of prophethood. When His Eminence (S) said this, the mountain started moving, a quake ensued, and water started flowing from it.
It called out: O Muhammad (S)! I give witness that you are the Messenger of the Lord of the worlds, chief of all the prior and the latter creatures; and I give evidence that their hearts are harder than rocks as you said. Not an iota of good comes out from them like sometimes floods erupt from rocks and sometimes water comes out little by little. I testify that these people who blame you for attributing lies to God, are themselves liars.
Then His Eminence (S) said to the mountain: I ask you to say that Allah has ordered you to obey my orders in all circumstances for the sake of Muhammad and his purified progeny, for whose sake Allah delivered Nuh (a.s.) from a great calamity, made the fire cool on Ibrahim Khalilullah and kept him safe from fire by making him sit on a throne that none had seen before, between flowers and fruits that grow in different seasons.
The mountain replied: O Muhammad (S), yes, I witness that whatever you said is true. I also give evidence that if you call on Allah to turn all men into apes and pigs, Allah will indeed do so or if you ask Him to turn them into angels, it will be surely done. If you pray to turn fire into ice and ice into fire, indeed it will happen so; or if you pray to Allah to make the sky fall on the earth and to raise the earth on the sky it will come about.
If you pray to Allah to make the East and West of the earth like a bag, then indeed Allah will do so. I testify that Allah has made all skies, earth, mountains, seas and forests obedient to you. The winds, lightning, animals and all people are obedient to you; and they shall do whatever you say.
After seeing these obvious miracles, the Jews said: O Muhammad, you are deceiving us. You have hidden your followers behind the rocks and they speak to you and you say that the mountain is speaking. We don’t know, whether the voice we hear is of the mountain or people. Only the foolish can be duped in this way. If you are true in your claim, move away from this mountain and order it to uproot itself and come to you.
When it comes to you, order it to split into two horizontally and that the lower part rise up and upper part come down; when this is done, we will accept that it is from Allah and that nobody has cheated us. Then His Eminence (S) gestured to a stone that weighed around two kilos and said: O stone, start rotating. The stone began to rotate at once.
When it came near, His Eminence (S) said to the Jew who was standing near to pick it up and bring it to his ear so that this may also give the testimony that the mountain had given because that stone was a piece of that mountain. When the Jew brought it to the ear, the stone began to speak by the power of Allah and said that in the same voice that came from the mountain that whatever blame the Jews laid on Muhammad were invalid and they were only to the detriment of the Jews themselves.
His Eminence (S) said: Did you hear what the stone said? Was there someone sitting behind this stone also and talking with you to deceive you? Or this stone is talking with you? The Jew said: No, it is not so, but you fulfill what I have requested you.
His Eminence (S) went to stand in a big open field and called out: O mountain! For the sake of Muhammad and his progeny, just as Allah sent the swift wind on the people of Aad, which destroyed the people just as dates fall from the trees and ordered Jibraeel (a.s.) to raise a dreadful loud voice on the people of Aad; hence it happened so and because of the severe fatal blow, all people dropped dead like hay, you also dislocate from your place and come to me. Saying this, he put his hands on the ground.
The mountain made a movement and immediately came to stand where His Eminence (S) had indicated and its roots came near the fingers of His Eminence (S). Then it said: O Messenger of the Lord of the worlds (S), I am here to listen to your commands with heart and to obey you. If you want me to disgrace your enemies, I can do it for you.
His Eminence (S) said: These opponents have asked me to order you to uproot from the earth and split into two in such a way that your upper half may come down and your lower part go to the top. The mountain asked: O Allah’s Messenger, do you order me this? He said: Yes. Immediately the mountain split into two and its lower part went up and the upper came down.
Then the mountain called: O Jews! Is this miracle less than what Musa (a.s.) showed and whom you believe? The Jews stared at each other. Some said: We have no excuse left. And some said: This man is very fortunate. He gets whatever he intends and shows many wonders. Don’t be tricked by his wonder acts.
The mountain said: O enemies of Allah, you falsified the prophethood of Musa (a.s.) in the same way. Did you not say that the turning of Musa’s staff into a python, splitting of the sea and the raising of the mountain was all because he was fortunate to show those wonders? And that you will not be deceived by those wonder acts?