“Those who disbelieved in Allah’s signs and in meeting Him, it is they who have despaired of My Mercy; it is they for whom a painful chastisement lies ahead.”
(Al Qur’ān – 29:23)
This ayah of the Qur’ān identifies those who will be ultimately bereft of Divine Mercy, and instead subjected to painful chastisement. No guardian is powerful enough to protect obdurate unbelievers from Divine chastisement. No one in the universe has any authority to prevent the enforcement of God’s punishment or protect them in any manner.
This means that such unbelievers will have no portion of God’s Mercy; in fact, they have no reason to entertain any such expectation. The fact is that the unbelievers deny the Hereafter. They do not even recognise that a Day will come when they will have to stand before God for His judgement. This clearly means that, to start with, they do not even look forward to receiving any reward in the Next Life and that they entertain no expectation of God’s forgiveness and mercy.
However, on the Day of Judgement they will be brought back to life – which is, in any case, altogether contrary to their expectations – they will have no opportunity to receive any portion of God’s mercy. Moreover, when they open their eyes in the Hereafter, they will come face to face with the Divine Signs which they had rejected in this world as utterly false and which they will then come to know were true. There will, therefore, be no reason for them to look forward to God’s mercy.