The Quran

Preface

وَهُم يَصطَرِخونَ فيها رَبَّنا أَخرِجنا نَعمَل صالِحًا غَيرَ الَّذي كُنّا نَعمَلُ ۚ أَوَلَم نُعَمِّركُم ما يَتَذَكَّرُ فيهِ مَن تَذَكَّرَ وَجاءَكُمُ النَّذيرُ ۖ فَذوقوا فَما لِلظّالِمينَ مِن نَصيرٍ

Yusuf Ali

Therein will they cry aloud (for assistance): “Our Lord! Bring us out:¹ we shall work righteousness,² not the (deeds) we used to do!” - “Did We not give you long enough life so that he that would should receive admonition? and (moreover) the warner came to you. So taste ye³ (the fruits of your deeds): for the wrong-doers there is no helper.”

Cf. 23:107. Not only will their surroundings be the opposite of those in Heaven: their internal state will be one of humiliation, of piteous and fruitless appeals, of vain regrets for a past that cannot be recalled, and vain sighs for a future whose gates they have themselves barred. If they were sent back, they would relapse to their sins. Cf. 6:28.
Cf. 7:53. Their hankering after another chance, after having deliberately rejected all chances, will have no basis of reason in it.
They had a long enough respite for repentance and amendment. And moreover, besides all the other sources, in nature, history, and their own hearts, by which they could learn of the Right, they had the actual teaching and warning of a messenger whose words spoke directly to them. In the circumstances the Penalty is only the fruit of their own conduct.