The power of God versus that of People in one verse

By: Maged Taman

كَذَّبَتْ قَبْلَهُمْ قَوْمُ نُوحٍ وَالْأَحْزَابُ مِن بَعْدِهِمْ وَهَمَّتْ كُلُّ أُمَّةٍ بِرَسُولِهِمْ لِيَأْخُذُوهُ وَجَادَلُوا بِالْبَاطِلِ لِيُدْحِضُوا بِهِ الْحَقَّ فَأَخَذْتُهُمْ فَكَيْفَ كَانَ عِقَابِ (40:5) 40:5 (Picktall) The folk of Noah and the factions after them denied (their messengers) before these, and every nation purposed to seize their messenger and argued falsely, (thinking) thereby to refute the Truth. Then I seized them, and how (awful) was My punishment.

Explanation:

God give in this simple verse his history with humans. When he sends his prophets the awful disbelievers do one or more of three things they deny the message, they plan to seize the prophet which can be by threatening him, make him live in fear, they harm or even kill him and lastly by discounting the message and making the falsehood more appealing than the truth. The answer of God is he seize them and how is his punishment. In God's answer you find two things first in Arabic the letter f before the verb seize فَأَخَذْتُهُمْ means his punishment is quick and the question of how is my punishment is opened so can be anything and with any severity.
The beauty of the language is you find the actions of the disbelievers are slower multiple and wicked (about 17 words) while that of God is in opposite direction with sharp acuteness and great magnitude (4 words). That is why every verse of the Qruan stand as evidence of a magnificent being that have sent the Quran.