“Yet they impatiently demand that you bring them punishment before mercy, although exemplary punishments have already passed before them. Indeed, your Lord is full of forgiveness for people despite their wrongdoing, yet indeed, your Lord is severe in punishment. Those who disbelieve say, ‘Why has no sign been sent down to him from his Lord?’ You are only a warner, and for every people there is a guide.”

His saying, exalted is He, “Yet they impatiently demand that you bring them punishment before mercy”: Impatience means seeking for something to be hastened before its proper time. Here, punishment refers to chastisement, while mercy refers to well-being. This is because the polytheists of Mecca mockingly sought punishment in place of well-being, saying: “O Allah, if this is indeed the truth from You, then rain down stones upon us from the sky or bring us a painful punishment.” (al-Anfal, 32)

“Although exemplary punishments have already passed before them”: that is, punishments had already befallen, before their time, the nations that disobeyed their Lord and denied His messengers. Muthulāt means exemplary punishments; it is the plural of muthlah, just as sadaqāt is the plural of sadaqah. (1)

“Indeed, your Lord is full of forgiveness for people despite their wrongdoing, yet indeed, your Lord is severe in punishment.”

“Those who disbelieve say, ‘Why has no sign been sent down to him’”—that is, to Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him—“from his Lord?” That is, a sign and proof of his prophethood. Allah, Most High, says: “You are only a warner,” one who warns, “and for every people there is a guide”: that is, every people has a prophet who calls them to Allah, Most High. Al-Kalbi said: a caller who summons them either to the truth or to misguidance.