The Quran

116

فَلَولا كانَ مِنَ القُرونِ مِن قَبلِكُم أُولو بَقِيَّةٍ يَنهَونَ عَنِ الفَسادِ فِي الأَرضِ إِلّا قَليلًا مِمَّن أَنجَينا مِنهُم ۗ وَاتَّبَعَ الَّذينَ ظَلَموا ما أُترِفوا فيهِ وَكانوا مُجرِمينَ

Muhammad Asad

BUT, ALAS, among those generations [whom We destroyed] before your time there were no people endowed with any virtue¹ - [people] who would speak out against the [spread of] corruption on earth - except the few of them whom We saved [because of their righteousness], whereas those who were bent on evildoing only pursued pleasures which corrupted their whole being,² and so lost themselves in sinning.

For my rendering of the particle law-la, at the beginning of this sentence, as "alas", see surah 10, note 119. The present passage connects with the statement in the preceding verse, "God does not fail to requite the doers of good", as well as with verse 111 above, "unto each and all will thy Sustainer give their due for whatever [good or evil] they may have done". - For the wider implications of the term garn ("generation"), see surah 6, note 5.
The verb tarifa means "he enjoyed a life of ease and plenty", while the participle mutraf denotes "one who enjoys a life of ease and plenty" or "indulges in the pleasures of life", i.e., to the exclusion of moral considerations. The form mutarraf has an additional significance, namely, "one whom a life of softness and ease has caused to behave insolently", or "one whom the [exclusive] pursuit of the pleasures of life has corrupted" (Mughni ). Hence my above rendering of the phrase and utrifu fihi.