Surah An-Nahl, Ayah 33
Quran 16:33 · The Bee · Makki · Para 14 · Page 270
هَلْ یَنْظُرُوْنَ اِلَّاۤ اَنْ تَاْتِیَهُمُ الْمَلٰٓىِٕكَةُ اَوْ یَاْتِیَ اَمْرُ رَبِّكَ ؕ كَذٰلِكَ فَعَلَ الَّذِیْنَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ ؕ وَمَا ظَلَمَهُمُ اللّٰهُ وَلٰكِنْ كَانُوْۤا اَنْفُسَهُمْ یَظْلِمُوْنَ ۟
Transliteration
Hal yanthuroona illa anta/tiyahumu almala-ikatu aw ya/tiya amru rabbika kathalikafaAAala allatheena min qablihim wama thalamahumuAllahu walakin kanoo anfusahum yathlimoon
Saheeh International
Do they [i.e., the disbelievers] await except that the angels should come to them or there comes the command of your Lord? Thus did those do before them. And Allāh wronged them not, but they had been wronging themselves.
Al-Mukhtasar fi Tafsir
Are these denying idolaters waiting for anything but the angel of death and his aides to come to take their souls and strike their faces and their backs, or for Allah’s command to come to eradicate them by means of a punishment in the world? Similar to those idolaters who came before who were destroyed because if their idolatry; so too the idolaters of Makkah may perhaps meet the same fate. Allah did not wrong them when He destroyed them but they wronged their own souls by bringing them to the point of destruction because of their disbelief in Allah.
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (abridged) on 16:33–16:34
Are they but waiting for the angels to come to them, or there comes the command of your Lord? Thus did those before them. And Allah did not wrong them, but they were wronging themselves (33)Then, they were afflicted by their evil deeds, and they were surrounded by that which they used to mock (34)
The Disbelievers' Refrain from Faith means that They were simply awaiting Punishment
Threatening the idolators for their persistence in falsehood and their conceited delusions about this world, Allah says: Are these people waiting only for the angels to come and take their souls? Qatadah said:
أَوْ يَأْتِيَ أَمْرُ رَبِّكَ
(Or there comes the command of your Lord?) means the Day of Resurrection and the terror that they will go through."
كَذَٰلِكَ فَعَلَ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ
(Thus did those before them.) means, thus did their predecessors and those who were like them among the idolators persist in their Shirk, until they tasted the wrath of Allah and experienced the punishment and torment that they suffered.
وَمَا ظَلَمَهُمُ اللَّهُ
(And Allah did not wrong them.) because by sending His Messengers and revealing His Books He gave them enough warning and clearly demonstrated His proofs to them.
وَلَٰكِن كَانُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ
(but they were wronging themselves.) meaning, by opposing the Messengers and denying what they brought. For this reason Allah's punishment tormented them.
وَحَاقَ بِهِم
(they were surrounded) meaning, they were overwhelmed by the painful torment.
مَّا كَانُوا بِهِ يَسْتَهْزِئُونَ
(by that which they used to mock.) meaning, they used to make fun of the Messengers when they warned them Allah's punishment, and for this it will be said to them on the Day of Resurrection:
هَٰذِهِ النَّارُ الَّتِي كُنتُم بِهَا تُكَذِّبُونَ
(This is the Fire which you used to belie.)(52:14).