﴿ وَقَطَّعْنَٰهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ أُمَمًۭا ۖ مِّنْهُمُ ٱلصَّٰلِحُونَ وَمِنْهُمْ دُونَ ذَٰلِكَ ۖ وَبَلَوْنَٰهُم بِٱلْحَسَنَٰتِ وَٱلسَّيِّـَٔاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ ﴾

“And We dispersed them as [separate] communities all over the earth; some of them were righteous, and some of them less than that: and the latter We tried with blessings as well as with afflictions, so that they might mend their ways.”

When a great reward is given for the performance of a task, it follows that the punishment for non-performance of that task will be equally great. This is the case in respect of a community which has been made the bearer of the Holy Book. God had elevated the Jews to this status. So, besides being made promises of bounties in the Hereafter, they were granted extraordinary benefits in the world as well. But the Jews continuously indulged in disobedience, committing irreligious acts in the name of practicing religion. The result was that God deposed them from their elevated status. It was decided that so long as the world existed, they would continue to experience God’s punishment, and whatever was going to happen in the Hereafter would be further to that. This does not mean that till Doomsday, they would never have good fortune. As is clarified in these verses themselves, they would have intervals of good days, but such periods would themselves be a sort of divine curse on them, in as much as it would be an opportunity for them to indulge in more insolence and thus become liable for more punishment. This universal law of God was not solely for the Jews. It was applicable to even that later group which was raised, after the deposition of the Jews, to the elevated position of God’s witnesses. If Muslims find that they are being dominated by those who deny the truth and polytheists, and that their various groups have become scattered, then they must revert to God, because this shows that they have incurred God’s displeasure.