Surah Al-An'am, Ayah 132

ذَلِكَ أَن لَّمْ يَكُنْ رَّبُّكَ مُهْلِكَ الْقُرَى بِظُلْمٍ وَأَهْلُهَا غَـفِلُونَ

(This is because your Lord would not destroy the (populations of) towns for their wrongdoing while their people were unaware. ) meaning: `We sent the Messengers and revealed the Books to the Jinns and mankind, so that no one has an excuse that he is being punished for his wrongs although he did not receive Allah's Message. Therefore, We did not punish any of the nations, except after sending Messengers to them, so that they have no excuse.' Allah said in other Ayat,

وَإِن مِّنْ أُمَّةٍ إِلاَّ خَلاَ فِيهَا نَذِيرٌ

(And there never was a nation but a warner had passed among them.) 35:24, and

The sense of the fourth verse (132) is fairly clear. It says that with Allah there are ranks for classes of people among human beings and the Jinn. These ranks have been assigned in terms of their deeds. When rewarded or punished, the measure used shall be that of their deeds.

On Doomsday, when the veil is torn from reality, it will be clear that those who had gone astray, or had misguided others, did not do so because of any misunderstanding. The reason for this was not their being unaware of the truth but their deliberately ignoring it. They could not rise above worldly pomp and show; they could not forego timely benefits. The guidance provided by God through His special subjects was so clear that nobody could have remained unaware of realities, but their worship of the world drew a veil over their eyes; in spite of knowing, they became unaware; in spite of listening, they did not hear. In the Hereafter, they will be shorn of the artificial supports on the strength of which they had remained careless of the Truth. Then it will be pointed out how the Truth had appeared before them and how they had rejected it with the help of false words; how, though their mistake had been explained to them, they still thought that they had been successful in justifying their stand by clever misrepresentations.