(45–46) “Indeed, We gave Moses the Scripture, but it was disputed. Had it not been for a prior decree from your Lord, judgment would already have been passed between them. They are truly in disquieting doubt about it. Whoever does righteous deeds does so for his own benefit, and whoever does evil does so to his own detriment. Your Lord is never unjust to His servants.”

Allah Most High says: “Indeed, We gave Moses the Scripture,” just as We have given you the Scripture. People treated it just as they have treated what was given to you: they differed over it. Some believed in it, were guided, and benefited from it, while others denied it and derived no benefit from it. Were it not for Allah Most High’s forbearance and His prior decree that the punishment be deferred until an appointed term that can be neither brought forward nor delayed, “judgment would already have been passed between them” as soon as the believers were distinguished from the disbelievers, and the disbelievers would have been destroyed immediately, for the cause warranting their destruction had already been established. “They are truly in disquieting doubt about it.” That is, their doubt has reached the point of troubling and unsettling them; therefore, they denied and rejected it.

“Whoever does righteous deeds”—namely, deeds commanded by Allah and His Messenger—“does so for his own benefit,” receiving their benefit and reward in this world and the Hereafter. “And whoever does evil does so to his own detriment,” bearing its harm and punishment in this world and the Hereafter. This encourages doing good and abandoning evil; it also shows that those who act benefit from their good deeds and are harmed by their evil deeds, and that no bearer of burdens will bear the burden of another. “Your Lord is never unjust to His servants,” such that He would burden anyone beyond what his evil deeds warrant.