15. This same thing has already been mentioned in (Surah Al-Baqarah, Ayat 28). It implies this: How can you disbelieve in Allah? He granted you life when you were lifeless; then He will give you death and then will again raise you back to life. The disbelievers do not deny the first three of these conditions, because they are perceptible and therefore un-deniable. But they refuse to accept the occurrence of the fourth condition, for they have not yet experienced it, and only the Prophets have foretold it. On the Day of Resurrection when the fourth condition will also be practically experienced by them, then they will acknowledge that the same which the Prophets had foretold had actually happened.
16. That is, we confess that we made a grave mistake when we denied this after life; our life was filled with sins when we followed falsehood.
17. That is, is there any possibility now that our confession of sins be accepted and we be rescued from this state of torment in which we have been seized?
18. That is, the Judgment now rests entirely with that God alone, Whose Godhead you did not acknowledge, and those others whom you persistently regarded as associates and partners in the powers of Godhead, have no share whatsoever in the judgment. (For a full understanding of this point, please see (verse 45 of Surah Az-Zumar and its E.N. 64). This sentence by itself gives the meaning that there would be no possibility of any way out for the disbelievers from the state of torment, for they did not only deny the Hereafter but they had aversion to their Creator and Sustainer, and they were not satisfied until they had associated others with Him.