The Quran

Preface

وَقالَ الَّذينَ استُضعِفوا لِلَّذينَ استَكبَروا بَل مَكرُ اللَّيلِ وَالنَّهارِ إِذ تَأمُرونَنا أَن نَكفُرَ بِاللَّهِ وَنَجعَلَ لَهُ أَندادًا ۚ وَأَسَرُّوا النَّدامَةَ لَمّا رَأَوُا العَذابَ وَجَعَلنَا الأَغلالَ في أَعناقِ الَّذينَ كَفَروا ۚ هَل يُجزَونَ إِلّا ما كانوا يَعمَلونَ

Yusuf Ali

Those who had been despised will say to the arrogant ones: “Nay! it was a plot (of yours) by day and by night:¹ Behold! Ye (constantly) ordered us to be ungrateful to God and to attribute equals to Him!”² They will declare (their) repentance³ when they see the Penalty: We shall put yokes on the necks of the Unbelievers: It would only be a requital for their (ill) Deeds.

The more intelligent ones who exploit the weaker ones are constantly plotting night and day to keep the latter ignorant and under their thumb. They show them the ways of Evil, because by that means they are more in their power.
If all men worshipped the true God, and none but Him, they could not on the one hand be trampled upon, and on the other hand they could not be unjust. It is in the worship of false ideals or false gods that alluring structures of fraud and injustice are built up.
Cf. 10:54, and n. 1445. All these mutual recriminations would be swallowed up in the general realisation of the Truth by both sides in the Hereafter. They would be prepared openly to declare their repentance, but it would be too late. The yoke of slavery to Evil will be on their necks. God’s justice put it there, but what else could it do? Their own sins will cry out against them and hold them under their yokes.