Ar-Ra'd 13:6

The Prophet Muhammad used to tell the people of Makkah to follow the guidance of God, otherwise they would be seized upon by Him. In reply to this they would say, ‘O, God! If whatever Muhammad declares is true, then shower pieces of stone on us from the sky.’ Apparently this prayer was addressed to God but, in fact, it was directed at the Prophet. At that time he appeared to be worthless to the people of Makkah. It was very difficult for them to believe that God would punish them on their rejecting such an ordinary man. Any imposition of punishment for their rejecting ‘Muhammad’ appeared to them such a distant possibility that they used to say, quite ridiculously, ‘We want that the punishment with which you are threatening us to actually be meted out to us.’ God says that His punishment is definitely going to overtake them due to their rejection of Truth. It is due to their being misguided that they wanted it to happen earlier. In fact, they should have spent this period of respite in giving careful consideration to the call of the Quran, rather than invite the punishment of God before time. People want to see the punishment of God with their own eyes and then accept it. But this is a demand made in sheer blindness. If they have observing eyes, then whatever happened with others should be enough to teach them a lesson. Many communities have passed before them who, like them, rejected the prophets of their age and finally they had to face punishment for this. By the law of God man is allowed respite to perform certain deeds. Unfortunately, this law of respite has made people arrogant. But there is a limit to respite. After this limit nothing awaits them except a horrible punishment from which they will not be able to save themselves.