وَمَا مَنَعَ ٱلنَّاسَ أَن يُؤْمِنُوٓا۟ إِذْ جَآءَهُمُ ٱلْهُدَىٰ وَيَسْتَغْفِرُوا۟ رَبَّهُمْ إِلَّآ أَن تَأْتِيَهُمْ سُنَّةُ ٱلْأَوَّلِينَ أَوْ يَأْتِيَهُمُ ٱلْعَذَابُ قُبُلًا
17:95.
Commentary:
The Quran has explained all matters that concern man’s belief and conduct so completely and comprehensively that no room is left to an honest person but to accept truth and obey the Divine Call. But so perverse and wayward are disbelievers that they refuse to see reason and accept truth. Their obstinacy and hardness of heart seems to show that they will not be satisfied with anything but Divine punishment.
By the words سنة الاولین is meant the last and final Divine punishment which completely destroys disbelievers, while the expression اویاتیھم العذاب قبلا refers to intermediate punishments which come only to warn disbelievers and rouse them from their state of indifference and lethargy. The verse means to say that people to whom reference has been made in the foregoing verses will have both kinds of punishment.
17:95.