A nearly similar meaning to this statement is recited in Surah Al-’An‘ām, No.
A nearly similar meaning to this statement is recited in Surah Al-’An‘ām, No. 6, verse 44, where it says: “Then, when they forgot that which they had been admonished to, We opened the doors of all things (of enjoyments), until when they rejoiced in what they were given, We seized them suddenly when, behold, they were in utter dispair.” The case is similar to the condition of a sick person whose physician becomes disappointed of him to be healed.
Then he tells the people around him that they let him eat everything he wishes, because it is indifferent for the diseased person, and he is passing away. However, as some commentators have said, there may also be another meaning for this verse. That meaning is that, after the removal of difficulties, the following generation said that bitter events were for their fathers and these offsprings were in security.
They were neglectful that Allah’s way of treatment in seizing people encompasses all generations, and such negligences are the secret of the Wrath of Allah. Therefore, passing by the bitter and sweet incidents heedlessly, and taking no example of them, brings forth the Wrath of Allah thereafter. This status is a sign of unawareness in such people. “…while they did not perceive.” Not every kind of welfare and happiness is a sign of the Grace of Allah.
They may sometimes prepare the field for the Wrath of Allah. The verse says: “Then We altered the ill (circumstances) to good, until they multiplied…” Sometimes it happens that the welfare of a person causes his neglectfulness and his disobedience from the command of Allah (s.w.t). “…and said: ‘Distress and happiness did indeed touch our fathers’…” Most of those who fail in the Divine trials are the rich and the people who are in welfare, not the deprived ones.
“And if the people of the towns had believed and kept from evil, We would have certainly opened up for them blessings from the heaven and the earth, but they belied; so We seized them for what they used to earn.” The Arabic term /barakāt/ is the plural form of /barakah/. It is applied for the fix and continual favours.