(Say) O Muhammad: (If I had that for which ye are impatient) i.e. punishment, (then would the case (ere this) have been decided between me and you) you would have already been destroyed. (Allah is best aware of the wrong-doers) of the punishment of the idolaters: al-Nadr Ibn al-Harith and his folk. Then, the punishment for which al-Nadr Ibn al-Harith asked happened: he was killed in captivity on the Day of Badr.