(8) [2494]But should We delay the Punishment from them for a given duration, they shall say: “What holds it back!” Nay, but on the day when it comes upon them, it shall not be warded off from them; they got hit by what they used to ridicule.
[2494] This further shows how far they took their principled rejection of the Message to heart: so much so that they asked for Punishment to come upon them sooner rather than later (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr).