Surah 10. Yunus, Ayah 11

Lit., "[the end of] their term would indeed have been decreed for them": the implication being, firstly, that man is weak (cf. 4:28 ) and therefore prone to sinning; secondly, that God "has willed upon Himself the law of grace and mercy" (see 6:12 and the corresponding note) and, consequently, does not punish sinners without taking their circumstances into consideration and giving them time to repent and to mend their ways.

See verse {7}, with which this verse connects.

 When they pray against themselves or their children, or when they demand to be destroyed.

Those who have no hope for the Future grasp at any temporary advantage, and in their blindness even mockingly ask for immediate punishment for their sins (viii. 32), thus vainly challenging Allah, in Whom they do not believe. If the beneficent Allah were to take them at their word, they would have no chance at all. Their doom would be sealed. But even the respite they get they use badly. They merely wander about distractedly like blind men, to and fro. Cf. ii. 15.