Surah Al-Hijr · سُوْرَةُ الْحِجْرِ · Juz 14
Q 15:5
مَّا تَسْبِقُ مِنْ أُمَّةٍ أَجَلَهَا وَمَا يَسْتَـْٔخِرُونَ
Translations
No nation will precede its term, nor will they remain thereafter.Nulle communauté ne devance son terme, ni ne le retarde.Tafsir
A nation will not be destroyed before its appointed time, and its destruction will not be delayed when its time arrives. The wrongdoers should not have hope in Allah delaying their fate.
Read Ibn Kathir (Ibn Kathir (abridged, English))
And never did We destroy a township but there was a known decree for it (4)No nation can advance its term, nor delay it (5)
Every Township has its allotted Time
Allah is informing us that He never destroys a township until He has established evidences for it and its allotted time has ended. When the time for a nation's destruction has come, He never delays it, and He never moves its appointed time forward. This was a message and a warning to the people of Makkah, telling them to give up their Shirk, their stubbornness and disbelief for which they deserved to be destroyed.
Arabic text: Tanzil (Uthmani). Translations: Sahih International (en), Muhammad Hamidullah (fr). tanzil.net