Ghafir 40:76–85

Enter the gates of Hell, to abide therein’. Evil then is the [ultimate] abode of the arrogant!

So be patient. Assuredly God’s promise, to chastise them, is true. And if We show you (fa-immā contains an assimilated conditional particle in; the mā is extra and emphasises the conditional import at the beginning of the verb, while the nūn emphasises it at the end) a part of what We promise them, of chastisement, in your lifetime (the response to the conditional has been omitted, in other words [it is something like]: ‘then so be it!’) … or We take you unto Us [in death], before their chastisement, then [in any case] to Us they will be returned, whereupon We shall chastise them with the most severe punishment (this [last] mentioned response is that of the supplement only).

And verily We sent messengers before you. Of them are those whom We have recounted to you, and of them are those whom We have not recounted to you: it is reported that God, exalted be He, sent 8,000 prophets, 4,000 prophets [sent] from among the Children of Israel and [the other] 4,000 from among the remainder of mankind. And it was never [permitted] for any messenger, from among them, to bring a sign except with God’s permission, for they are [also] servants enthralled [by Him]. Hence when God’s command comes, for the chastisement to be sent down on the disbelievers, judgement, between the messengers and their deniers, is passed justly; and it is thence that the advocates of falsehood become losers, that is to say, [it is thence that] the judgement and the loss become manifest for mankind, although such [advocates of falsehood] will have always been losers always before that.

God it is Who made for you cattle — it is said that ‘camels’ are specifically meant here, even though it seems to signify cows and sheep also — that you may ride some of them and eat of some.

And there are [other] uses for you in them, such as [their] milk, offspring, fur and wool, and that by them you may satisfy any need that is in your breasts, namely, to transport heavy loads to [other] lands, and on them, on land, and on the ships, in the sea, you are carried.

And He shows you His signs. So which of God’s signs, that is, [the signs] that prove His Oneness, do you reject? (the interrogative here is meant as a rebuke; ayya, ‘which of’ is more commonly made masculine than feminine).

Have they not travelled across the land to see the nature of the consequence for those before them? They were more powerful than them in might and in [their] vestiges on earth, in the way of large structures and palaces. But what they used to earn did not avail them.

And when their messengers brought them clear signs, manifest miracles, they, the disbelievers, exulted in the knowledge they, the messengers, possessed, an exultation that entailed mockery and amusement, as they rejected such [knowledge], and there besieged, befell, them that which they used to deride, namely, the chastisement.

Then, when they saw Our doom, that is, the severity of Our chastisement, they said, ‘We believe in God alone, and we disavow what we used to associate with Him’.

But their faith was of no benefit to them when they saw Our doom — [This is] God’s way (sunnata’Llāhi is in the accusative because it functions as a verbal noun from an implicit verb of the same expression) with the believers, among all communities, which is that faith is of no benefit to them once the chastisement has been sent down, which has its precdent; and it is thence that the disbelievers will be losers — [it is thence that] their status as losers will become apparent to all [of mankind], even though they will have always been losers before that.