Translation of the meanings Ayah 95 Surah Al-A‘rāf - English Translation - Dr. Waleed Bleyhesh Omary - The Noble Qur'an Encyclopedia

Ayah: 95

ثُمَّ بَدَّلۡنَا مَكَانَ ٱلسَّيِّئَةِ ٱلۡحَسَنَةَ حَتَّىٰ عَفَواْ وَّقَالُواْ قَدۡ مَسَّ ءَابَآءَنَا ٱلضَّرَّآءُ وَٱلسَّرَّآءُ فَأَخَذۡنَٰهُم بَغۡتَةٗ وَهُمۡ لَا يَشۡعُرُونَ

(95) Then We ˹always˺ replaced the bad ˹times˺ with the good ˹times˺ until they prospered^[1699] and ˹dismissively˺ said: “Affliction and hardship had touched our fathers ˹before˺!” We took them all of a sudden while they did not realize ˹it˺!

[1699] ʿAfaw (translated here as prospered) is a semantically dense word. It, at once, means they became bodily healthy, prosperous and great in number (cf. al-Ṭabarī, al-Baghawī, al-Saʿdī, Ibn ʿĀshūr). This is by way of ‘slackening the reins for them to wander aimlessly in their blindness’ (cf. 2: 15): “When they forgot what they were reminded of, We opened up for them the doors of everything; yet when they become full of gloating over what they were given, We took them all of a sudden, and lo they are seized with despair” (6: 44).