The Quran

Preface

۞ وَلَو يُعَجِّلُ اللَّهُ لِلنّاسِ الشَّرَّ استِعجالَهُم بِالخَيرِ لَقُضِيَ إِلَيهِم أَجَلُهُم ۖ فَنَذَرُ الَّذينَ لا يَرجونَ لِقاءَنا في طُغيانِهِم يَعمَهونَ

Yusuf Ali

If God were to hasten for men the ill (they have earned) as they would fain hasten on the good,- then would their respite be settled at once.¹ But We leave those who rest not their hope on their meeting with Us, in their trespasses, wandering in distraction to and fro.

Those who have no spiritual hope for the Future grasp at any temporary advantage, and in their blindness even mockingly ask for immediate punishment for their sins (8:32), thus vainly challenging God, in Whom they do not believe. If the beneficent God were to take them at their word, they would have no chance at all. Their doom would be sealed. But even the respite they get they use badly. They merely wander about distractedly like men, to and fro. Cf. 2:15.