“15. Whoever follows guidance does so only for his own benefit, and whoever goes astray does so only to his own detriment. No bearer of burdens will bear another’s burden, and We would never punish until We had sent a messenger.”

That is, each person’s guidance or misguidance concerns himself alone. No one bears another’s sin, nor can anyone avert from another so much as an atom’s weight of evil. Allah Most High is the most just of all: He does not punish anyone until the proof has been established against him through the message of a messenger and he then stubbornly rejects that proof.

As for one who submits to the proof, or whom Allah Most High’s proof has not reached, Allah Most High does not punish him.

This verse has been cited as evidence that Allah does not punish those unreached by revelation during intervals between messengers, or the children of polytheists, until He sends them a messenger, for He is far above injustice.