Say O Muhammad (s) to the people of Mecca ‘My Lord would not be concerned with you mā is for negation were it not for your supplications to Him when you are in adversity which He then removes. But why should He be concerned with you when you have denied the Messenger and the Qur’ān and so that the chastisement will remain binding’ permanently bound to you in the Hereafter in addition to what will befall you in this world; and so on the day of Badr seventy of them were slain the response to the conditional lawlā ‘were it not for …’ is indicated the preceding words.