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wa-qaṭṭaʿnāhum fī l-ʾarḍi ʾumaman minhumu ṣ-ṣāliḥūna wa-minhum dūna dhālika wa-balawnāhum bi-l-ḥasanāti wa-s-sayyiʾāti laʿallahum yarjiʿūna
We dispersed them into communities around the earth: some of them were righteous, and some of them otherwise, and We tested them with good and bad [times] so that they may come back.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-‘Araf – Verse 168
168 . “And We dispersed them into communities on the earth, some of them being righteous, and some of them otherwise, and We tried them with good things and bad things that they might return.”
It was ordained that for a length of time the Children of Israel visited honour and power, in order that maybe they might become thankful. And, for another length of time, they were involved in calamities that might the sense of repentance and humiliation be renewed in them. Some of them were virtuous and believed in Islam, while some others pursued corruption, and insisted on their own mammonism and stubbornness. The verse says: