But if they [who reject all thought of the Last Hour] were to see a sign [of its approach], they would turn aside and say, “An ever-recurring delusion!” –
[LONG] BEFORE those [who now deny resurrection] did Noah’s people call it a lie; and they gave the lie to Our servant and said, “Mad is he!” - and he was repulsed.
54:10
فَدَعَا رَبَّهُۥٓ أَنِّى مَغْلُوبٌۭ فَٱنتَصِرْ
Thereupon he called out to his Sustainer, “Verily, I am defeated; come Thou, then, to my succour!”
and even demanded that he give up his guests [to them]: whereupon We deprived them of their sight [and thus told them, as it were]: “Taste, then, the suffering which I inflict when My warnings are disregarded!”
ARE, THEN, those of you who [now] deny the truth better than those others - or have you, perchance, [been promised] immunity in the [ancient] books of [divine] wisdom?
54:44
أَمْ يَقُولُونَ نَحْنُ جَمِيعٌۭ مُّنتَصِرٌۭ
Or do they say, “We are a group united, [and therefore] bound to prevail”?
54:45
سَيُهْزَمُ ٱلْجَمْعُ وَيُوَلُّونَ ٱلدُّبُرَ
[Yet] the hosts [of those who deny the truth] shall be routed, and they shall turn their backs [in flight]!