The Believer
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[40:85]
But their attaining to faith after they had beheld Our punishment could not possibly benefit them – such being the way of God that has always obtained for His creatures – and so, then and there, lost were they who had denied the truth.

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* v.85 : I.e., firstly, because this belated faith could not unmake a reality which had already come into being, and, secondly, because it could not contribute to their spiritual growth inasmuch as it was not an outcome of free choice but had been, rather, forced on them by the shock of an irreversible calamity.
* The “way of God” (sunnat Allāh) is the Qur’anic term for the totality of natural laws instituted by the Creator: in this case, the law that faith has no spiritual value unless it arises out of a genuine, inner enlightenment.