17. In other words, there were three reasons for their refusal to obey and follow the Prophet Salih:
(1) He is a human being and not a super-human person so that we may regard him as superior to ourselves.
(2) He is a member of our own nation, he is in no way superior to us.
(3) He is a single man, one from among ourselves. He is not a prominent chief with a large following, or an army of soldiers. Or a host of attendants so that we may acknowledge his superiority. They wanted that a Prophet should either be a superman, or if he be a common man, he should not have been born in their own land and nation, but should have descended from above, or sent from another land, and if nothing else, he should at least have been a rich man, whose extraordinary splendor should make the people believe why Allah had selected him alone for the leadership of the nation. This same was the error of ignorance in which the disbelievers of Makkah were involved. They also refused to acknowledge the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as a Prophet on the basis that he was a man who moved about in the streets like the common men, had been born among them only the other day and now was claiming that God had appointed him as a Prophet.
18. The word ashir of the original means a conceited, insolent person given to bragging of his own superiority over others.