“Perhaps your Lord will have mercy on you. But if you return, We will return; and We have made Hell an enclosing prison for the disbelievers.”

“Perhaps your Lord will have mercy on you” and give you another turn of victory over them. He did have mercy on them and granted them ascendancy. Yet He warned them against acts of disobedience, saying, “But if you return” to spreading corruption in the land, “We will return” to punishing you. They did return to it, so Allah gave His Messenger Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, power over them and exacted retribution from them through him. This is their recompense in this world, while the exemplary punishment awaiting them with Allah is greater and more dreadful. Hence He says, “And We have made Hell an enclosing prison for the disbelievers”: they will enter its flames and remain there, never leaving it.

These verses warn this nation against committing sins, lest what befell the Children of Israel also befall them, for Allah’s way is one and is neither altered nor changed.

Whoever reflects on how disbelievers and oppressors are given mastery over the Muslims will recognize that this is a punishment for the Muslims’ sins, and that when they uphold the Book of Allah and the sunnah of His Messenger, He establishes them in the land and grants them victory over their enemies.