50وَما أَمرُنا إِلّا واحِدَةٌ كَلَمحٍ بِالبَصَرِMuhammad Asadand Our ordaining [a thing and its coming into being] is but one [act], like the twinkling of an eye.1I.e., there is no time lag and no conceptual difference between God's "willing" the creation of a thing and His "creating" it, for "when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, 'Be' - and it is" (2:117, 3:47, 16:40, 19:35, 36:82 and 40:68). The comparison with the "twinkling of an eye" is, of course, merely idiomatic, i.e., based on the human concept of something instantaneous. In the present context this is - as the sequence shows - an allusion to the rapidity with which God can, if He so wills, destroy a sinful community.