﴿ وَلَوْلَآ أَن تُصِيبَهُم مُّصِيبَةٌۢ بِمَا قَدَّمَتْ أَيْدِيهِمْ فَيَقُولُوا۟ رَبَّنَا لَوْلَآ أَرْسَلْتَ إِلَيْنَا رَسُولًۭا فَنَتَّبِعَ ءَايَٰتِكَ وَنَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ ﴾

“and [We have sent thee] lest they say [on Judg­ment Day], when disaster befalls them as an outcome of what their own hands have wrought, “O our Sus­tainer, if only Thou had sent an apostle unto us, we would have followed Thy messages, and would have been among those who believe!””

Otherwise if an affliction a punishment should befall them because of what their own hands have sent before them in the way of disbelief and otherwise they might say ‘Our Lord why did You not send a messenger to us that we might have followed Your signs the ones sent with the messengers and been of the believers?’ the response to the conditional particle lawlā ‘if’ has been omitted and what follows it is a new subject; the meaning is ‘were it not for the affliction that is the cause of their saying’ or ‘were it not for their saying that is the cause of their affliction We would have hastened on for them their punishment and We would not have sent you as a messenger to them’.