Joseph
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE
[12:110]
[All the earlier apostles had to suffer persecution for a long time;] but at last – when those apostles had lost all hope and saw themselves branded as liars – Our succour attained to them: whereupon everyone whom We willed [to be saved] was saved [and the deniers of the truth were destroyed]: for never can Our punishment be averted from people who are lost in sin.


* v.110 : Lit., “until” (hattā). This connects with the reference to earlier apostles in the first sentence of the preceding verse: the implication being (according to Zamakhsharī) that they used to suffer for a long time before they were vindicated by God.
* Lit., “thought that they had been given the lie” – i.e., either by their people, who regarded the apostles’ expectation of God’s succour as mere wishful thinking, or by the harsh reality which seemed to contradict those apostles’ own hopes of speedy help from God (Zamakhsharī). Commenting on this verse, ‘Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abbās used to quote 2:214 – “so shaken were they that the apostle, and the believers with him, would exclaim, ‘When will God s succour come?’” (ibid.).