Wa-inna lillatheena thalamoo AAathaban doona thalika walakinna aktharahum la yaAAlamoon (surah Tur: 47)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(52:47) Surely a chastisement awaits the wrong-doers even before the coming of that Day; but most of them do not know. *37

Wa inna lillazeena zalamoo `azaaban doona zalika wa laakinna aksarahum laa ya`lamoon

*37) This is a repetition of the same theme that has already occurred in As-Sajdah: 21 above: "Even in this world We shall make them taste (one or the other) lesser torment before that greater torment; maybe they desist (from their rebellious attitude)." That is, "We shall send down personal and national disasters from time to time in the world to remind that there is above them a superior power which is deciding their destinies and none has the power to change its decisions. But the people who are involved in ignorance have neither learnt any lesson from these events before not will learn any lesson in the future. They do not understand the meaning of the disasters and calamities occurring in the world. Therefore, they explain them away in every such way as takes than further and further away from the reality, and thou mind never turns to any' explanation, which might make the error of their atheism or polytheism manifest to them. This same thing has been explained by the Holy Prophet (upon whom be peace) in a Hadith, thus: "The example of a hypocrite who falls ill and then gets well, is of the camel whom the masters tied, but it did not understand why they had tied it, and when they untied it, it did not understand why they had untied it." (Abu Da'ud: Kitab al-.Jana'iz). For further explanation, see E.N. 45 of Al-Anbiya', E.N.,66 of An-Naml, E.N.'s 72. 73 of AI-'Ankabut).