[3:181-182] Verily God has heard the saying of those who said, 'Indeed God is poor, and we are rich'. We shall write down what they have said and their slaying the prophets without right, and We shall say, 'Taste the chastisement of the Burning. * That is for what your hands have sent before; for God is never unjust towards His servants'.
If this address were between created beings, it would be a complaint. The complaint to friends about enemies is the way (sunna) of lovers.
It is said He knew that there were those among the believers who were slandering people and that was ugly in their speech, but He exposed a greater ugliness. This was to show that the ugly speech of the believers was paltry in comparison to the ugliness of the speech of the disbelievers. It is as if He said: Their speech was ugly in its defamation but the speech of the disbelievers was even uglier since they described Us with what is not appropriate to attribute to Us.
There is also an allusion in it to the call to mankind and leniency for the adversary, for surely God (s) did not deprive them of what He gave them in spite of their negligence with respect to His rights.
We shall write down what they have said: These words give cause for embarrassment for the neglectful in the subtlest of allusion. It means that even if they have forgotten their states and words, We will resurrect for them what We have written against them. Their speaker said:
I have pages
in which blame is buried.
They will be resurrected one day
and the blame will endure:
I will be patient
until God brings us together
but if we meet one day
I will speak.
'That is for what your hands have sent before: for God is never unjust towards His servants': If this were from one created being to another, it would be like absolving oneself of blame in one's action [in punishing another]. It is as if He (s) is saying, 'My servant, the punishment that will come to you on that day is because of your sin. If you had not done it, We would not punish you'.