لَّوْ مَا تَأْتِينَا بِٱلْمَلَـٰٓئِكَةِ إِن كُنتَ مِنَ ٱلصَّـٰدِقِينَ
Law maa taateenaa bil malaaa'ikati in kunta minas saadiqeen
Why do you not bring us the angels, if you are telling the truth?’
Why do you not bring the angels to us, if you are truthful?
The demand arrives in the grammar of encouragement. Its opening particle, lawma, is one Arabic keeps for urging somebody toward an action, and it appears at this verse and at no other, so the taunt wears the shape of a prompt. The condition attached at the end tests the man rather than the message: it asks whether he is truthful.