Fama kana daAAwahum ith jaahum ba'suna illa an qaloo inna kunna thalimeen (surah Araf: 5)

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

(7:5) And when Our scourge fell upon them their only cry was: 'We are indeed transgressors.' *5

Famaa kaana da`waahum iz jaaa`ahum baasunaa illaaa an qaalooo innaa kunnaa zaalimeen

*5). People can learn a lesson from the tragic fate of those nations that spurned God's Guidance. and instead followed the guidance of others; and they became so degenerate that their very existence became an intolerable burden on the earth. Eventually, God's scourge seized them. and the earth was cleansed of their filthy existence.
The words uttered by, the evil-doers: 'We are indeed transgressors', emphasizes two points, First, that it is pointless for one to realize and repent of one's wrong-doing after the time for such repentance is past. Individuals and communities who allow the term granted to them to be wasted in heedlesness and frivolity, who turn a deaf car to those who invite them to the truth, have so often been overtaken in the past by God's punishmet. Second, there are numerous instances of individuals as well as communities which incontrovertibly prove that when the wrong-doings of a nation exceed a certain limit, the term granted to it expires and God's punishment suddenly overtakes it. And once a nation is subjected to God's punishment, there is no escape from it. Since human history abounds in such instances, there is no reason why people should persist in the same iniquity, and repent only when the time for repentance has passed.