Divine Punishment of Unbelievers in This World
David Marshall
Islam emphasizes the reward of believers and the punishment of unbelievers in the hereafter. The vivid accounts of these realities in the final book of al-Ghazali’s The Revival of the Religious Sciences is a classic example of the elaboration in the Islamic tradition of the already plentiful eschatological material in the Quran. This article, however, focuses on passages in the Quran that refer to God punishing communities of unbelievers, not after death but in this world.
The great majority of such passages narrate how God punished past generations of unbelievers for rejecting messengers sent by him. These stories (almost entirely in sūras traditionally designated “Meccan”) typically describe spectacular acts of divine punishment, frequently familiar from the Bible (e.g., the flood or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah). Often several such stories, each introducing a new messenger but linked by repeated themes and phrases, are woven into sequences that reinforce one basic story line: God sends a messenger; the messenger is rejected; the unbelievers are punished (e.g., Sūras 7, 11, and 26). The Quran links these stories to the situation of the one it addresses as called to proclaim God’s message (traditionally, Muhammad): the stories have been revealed not only to encourage him (11.120) but also to warn unbelievers that a similar act of divine punishment in this world as has befallen unbelievers in the past (35.43–44; 41.13). Both in stories about divine punishments in the past and in references to the present, the overwhelming response to the prophetic warnings is unbelief, sometimes including a derisive challenge to the prophet to “bring on” the threatened punishment if what he says is true (26.185–87, 204; 8.31–32).
The paradigm of divine punishment described above portrays God as acting directly. Whether narrating past punishments or warning of punishments that could strike unbelievers in the future, the Quran speaks of unmediated acts of divine intervention. Crucially, the believers are not involved. In contrast, some passages (in sūras traditionally designated “Medinan”) suggest a different paradigm of mediated divine punishment: God does not intervene directly but uses believers to punish unbelievers by defeating them militarily.
Though references to this mediated punishment are comparatively rare, they are highly significant. The clearest example occurs at 9.14, where believers are exhorted to fight unbelievers who have broken their oaths, tried to drive out the messenger, and attacked them first: “Fight them! God will punish them by your hands.” While there is little if any apparent acknowledgment here of the contrast between the different paradigms, the Quran does comment at other points, albeit indirectly, on the relationship between them. Traditionally Sūra 8 has been understood to address the situation after the believers defeated the unbelievers at Badr. Even if one ignores that assumption, much in this sūra is clearly commenting on a recent military victory, suggesting that it was a divine intervention against the unbelievers such as was threatened in the punishment stories discussed above. For example, 8.6–7 include verbal echoes of the punishment stories, which are also clearly in mind at 8.31–32. Also relevant here is the comment at 47.4 that God could have defeated the unbelievers himself (implying intervention without intermediaries) but has commanded the believers to fight in order to test them. Here the Quran appears to address why God is favoring one approach to punishing unbelievers over another.
If we assume, as a framework for interpreting the Quran, even just the outlines of the traditional narrative provided by the Sīra literature, we can develop a plausible explanation of the coexistence in the Quran of the two punishment paradigms. After the Muslims migrated to Medina according to the traditional narrative, and especially after the battle of Badr, assumptions about the role of Muhammad and his community in the Meccan “unmediated punishment paradigm” were superseded by the Medinan “mediated punishment paradigm,” which involved a military dimension that previously was neither mandated by God nor expected by the believers. This transition is reflected by the almost complete absence of punishment stories in Medinan sūras, in which there emerges an increasingly explicit recognition of the believers as the instrument used by God to punish the unbelievers. Without this traditional framework, it is unclear what alternative account can be offered of the range of quranic material on God’s punishment of unbelievers in this world.

47.4 – When you meet those who disbelieve, (let there be) a striking of the necks
The idea of “believers” striking “disbelievers” in the neck is understandably a lively concern for those whom the Quran considers disbelievers. The context of this activity is war (ḥarb), and the Quran commands believers to tighten the bonds of the unbelievers when the unbelievers are overwhelmed.
“Subdued” in this verse translates the difficult Arabic verb athkhana, which also appears in 8.67. Arthur Arberry translated the verb as “made wide slaughter,” and the Muslim commentator Ibn Kathīr (d. 1373) also took the verse in this direction. See “Fighting and Killing in the Quran”.

47.4 – He would indeed have defended Himself against them, but (He allows fighting) so that He may test some of you by means of others
This verse seems to claim that although Allah could have resolved the conflict without the need for human fighting, he chose to have the believers fight in order to “test some of you by means of others.” The following passage seems to say that in times of fighting, Allah needs the help of the believers (v. 7). This is one of a number of verses that say that Allah punishes the enemy by the hands of the believers (e.g., 9.14) and thereby sorts out who are the true believers (e.g., 3.152–54; 33.11; 57.25).

47.4 – Those who are killed in the way of God – He will not lead their deeds astray
To be killed in the way of Allah means to die while fighting. The concept that those who die fighting will be rewarded comes from passages such as this (vv. 4–6; also 2.154; 3.157–58, 169–72; 3.195; 22:58–59).
The rewards to fighters in this passage include guidance from Allah and entry into the “Garden” – the quranic concept of heaven or paradise. Other passages promise these same rewards as well as remaining alive (2.154; 3.169), forgiveness from Allah and mercy (3.157), being gathered to Allah (3.158), freedom from fear and sorrow (3.170), absolution of evil deeds (3.195), and good provision from Allah (22.58).
These verses highlight a fundamental difference in the concept of “dying in the way of God” between the Quran and the New Testament. The New Testament has no command to fight and no promise of a reward to those who die fighting. Rather, the concept of martyrdom in the New Testament is the death of believers who die bearing faithful witness (Gk. marturia, e.g., Revelation 12:11) to Jesus while not resisting the “evil person” who is fighting them (Matthew 5:39).