Al A‘rāf

أَفَاَمِنَ أَهْلُ الْقُرَى أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمْ بَأْسُنَا بَيَاتاً وَهُمْ نَآئِمُونَ

أَوَأَمِنَ أَهْلُ الْقُرَى أَنْ يَأْتِيَهُمْ بَأْسُنَا ضُحًى وَهُمْ يَلْعَبُونَ

97. “What! do the people of the towns then feel secure from Our punishment coming upon them by night while they are sleeping?”

98. “What! do the people of the towns feel secure from Our punishment coming upon them in daylight while they are playing?”

It questions whether the people of towns, who reject the prophets, are secure from the punishment of Allah when it comes down upon them while they are asleep at night, the same as it befell upon the former people. The verse says:

Again, it questions whether the people of towns are secure from the punishment of Allah when it seizes them at the day time while they are busy doing some vain affairs. The verse says:

It is evident that whoever is busy with the mere affairs of this world and does not heed the affairs of Hereafter is in vain and, as if, he is playing around. The purpose of the Qur’ānic phrase ‘the people of the towns’ is any group of people who are busy with some useless affairs, and who reject divine prophets, and they refrain worshipping One God. The occasion of revelation of these two verses, of course, was the obstinacies of the pagans of Mecca.