(75–77) “If We showed them mercy and removed the harm afflicting them, they would persist in their transgression, wandering blindly. We had indeed seized them with punishment, yet they neither humbled themselves before their Lord nor implored Him. Then, when We open for them a gate of severe punishment, they will at once be plunged into despair.”

This explains the severity of their rebellion and obstinacy. When hardship befalls them, they call upon Allah to remove it from them so that they may believe; or He afflicts them with it so that they may return to Him. Yet if Allah removes their hardship, they persist—that is, they continue in their transgression, wandering blindly: roaming about in their disbelief, bewildered and wavering.

Allah likewise mentions their condition when they board ships: they call upon Him with sincere devotion, forgetting whatever they associate with Him; but as soon as He saves them, they begin transgressing throughout the land through polytheism and other sins.

“We had indeed seized them with punishment.” The commentators said that this refers to the hunger that afflicted them for seven years. Allah tested them with it so that they might return to Him in humility and submission, but it had no effect on them, and not one of them returned. “Yet they neither humbled themselves before their Lord”—that is, they did not submit or abase themselves—“nor implored Him” and acknowledged their utter need of Him. Rather, it passed over them and then disappeared as though it had never afflicted them, while they continued in their error and disbelief.

Yet awaiting them is a punishment that cannot be averted, as expressed in His words: “Then, when We open for them a gate of severe punishment,” such as the killing on the Day of Badr and the like, “they will at once be plunged into despair”—despairing of every good, with calamity and all its causes having overtaken them. Let them therefore beware before Allah’s severe and inescapable punishment descends upon them. This differs from ordinary punishment, which may sometimes be lifted from them, such as the worldly penalties by which Allah disciplines His servants. Concerning these, Allah Most High says:

“Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people’s hands have earned, so that He may make them taste some of what they have done, that perhaps they may return.”