“But you made them a laughing-stock, until it caused you to forget My remembrance, and you used to laugh at them” (23:110). That is: you jeered at those believers who believed in Allah and pleaded with Him for forgiveness and mercy; you ridiculed and scoffed at them “until they made you forget My remembrance,” meaning that your very mockery of them erased My remembrance from your minds.

“And you used to laugh at them,” that is, in the worldly life you laughed at the believers and derided them.

Yet Allah has said in Sūrat al-Mutaffifīn: “So today those who believed will laugh at the disbelievers” (83:34). This is a laughter that will never be followed by tears, whereas the laughter of the disbelievers at the Muslims in this world will be followed—Allah’s protection is sought—by unending weeping.

“Indeed, I have rewarded them this Day for their patience; they are truly the triumphant” (23:111). In other words, Allah has recompensed the believers for the patience they showed in obeying Him, in refraining from disobedience, and in enduring His decrees. “They are truly the triumphant”: they have gained what they sought and escaped what they feared. Allah mentions this in the hearing of the deniers only to heighten their grief and regret—as though He were saying, Exalted is He: Had you been like them you would have earned this reward. Thus their sorrow multiplies—may Allah grant us refuge.

What, then, became of those who once mocked and laughed at the believers? What is their state now, chained within the Fire of Hell?

Allah will say, “How many years did you remain on earth?” They will answer, “We remained a day or part of a day; ask those who keep count.” The messengers had surely come to them, and they lived long enough for anyone who wished to take heed; but—Allah protect us—they gained no benefit from that span and now see it as though they had stayed only an hour, or even less.