43.40 – Can you make the deaf to hear, or can you guide the blind . . . ?
The Quran addresses the messenger directly to note the limitations of his work and to encourage him to continue preaching faithfully. The messenger’s audience asks him for a miracle or “sign” (āya) at a number of points (e.g., 6.109; 13.7, 27; 20.133; 29.50). The Quran’s response is generally to say that the messenger is only a warner and that “signs are only with Allah” (6.109; 29.50).
The power to “make the deaf to hear” is of course what the Gospel accounts report about Jesus (Mark 7:31–37), and what Jesus freely claimed (Matthew 11.4–5; Luke 7.22; cf. Isaiah 35:5). Further on, Sūra 43 declares that “ ‘Īsā brought the clear signs” (v. 63). See the comments at verse 63, as well as a discussion about the miracles of ‘Īsā in the Quran at 5.110.