Hûd
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[11:117]
For never would thy Sustainer destroy a community for wrong [beliefs alone] so long as its people behave righteously [towards one another].

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* v.117 : See sūrah 6, note 116.
* This passage connects with the concluding clause of the preceding verse, “and lost themselves in sinning.” According to most of the classical commentators, the term zulm (lit., “wrong” or “evildoing”) is in this context synonymous with “wrong beliefs” amounting to a denial of the truths revealed by God through His prophets, a refusal to acknowledge His existence, or the ascribing of divine powers or qualities to anyone or anything beside Him. Explaining the above verse in this sense, Rāzī says: “God’s chastisement does not afflict any people merely on account of their holding beliefs amounting to shirk and kufr, but afflicts them only if they persistently commit evil in their mutual dealings, and deliberately hurt [other human beings] and act tyrannically [towards them]. Hence, those who are learned in Islamic Law (al-fuqahā’) hold that men’s obligations towards God rest on the principle of [His] forgiveness and liberality, whereas the rights of man are of a stringent nature and must always be strictly observed” – the obvious reason being that God is almighty and needs no defender, whereas man is weak and needs protection. (Cf. the last sentence of 28:59 and the corresponding note 61.)