Overall meaning : Allah Almighty says: Other messengers were mocked before you, Muhammad, but those who derided them suffered the very punishment they mocked. Say, Muhammad, to those who ask for their punishment to be hastened, ‘Who will protect you, by night and by day and both in your sleep and wakefulness, from the All-Compassionate God?!’ Yet are they stubbornly turn away from the Qur’an and are utterly heedless of their Lord’s admonitions! Do they have gods other than Us to protect them against Our punishment if We inflict it on them? Their alleged gods cannot even help themselves, let alone help those who worship them! And they will by no means be protected against Our torment.
We have allowed the unbelievers and their fathers to enjoy wealth, children and longer lives; they have been deluded by such reprieve and so they have persisted in their unbelief, thinking they will not suffer punishment. Do they not see that We gradually reduce their land from its borders, in accordance with Our laws which We have set in operation, as a result of the defeats We inflict on them, thereby causing their lands to fall to the Muslims? Are the unbelievers of Makkah, then, the ones who are victorious over the Prophet and his faithful followers?! By no means! They are the ones who are humiliated and defeated.
Say, Muhammad, to those to whom you have been sent: ‘I can only warn you against Allah’s punishment through divine revelation (i.e. the Qur’an).’ The unbelievers, nonetheless, do not listen to the Qur’an with a view to reflecting on it, as though they are deaf, for they do not benefit from it when they are warned through its verses. Yet, if but a whiff of Allah’s punishment touched those who ask for their torment to be hastened, they would surely realize the dire consequences of denying it and would invoke destruction upon themselves for having wronged themselves as a result of worshipping other than Allah.
We will set up the Just balance for judgement on the Day of Resurrection, so that no person will in the least be wronged. Even if there is a good or bad deed that is no more than the weight of a grain of mustard seed, We will bring it forth to weigh it on the Balance. We suffice to take count of people’s deeds and repay them accordingly.