I’ll explain that. The fact is that the normally understood meaning of this verse is not correct. It does not mean that Allah takes account of every evil quickly because the other verses of the Holy Quran are opposed to this meaning. Allah gives respect to people as He pleases, as long as He pleases, and does not take account immediately in many cases. So what should it mean then, Sirri-ul-Risaal? It only means that when He decides to punish a people, He’s swift in punishment, He’s swift in accounting. Then, He’s so swift, so fast, that people cannot get out of it, cannot escape.
That is the meaning of Sirri-ul-Risaal. Umli lakum inna kayni bateen is another place where it says that I am not in no hurry to bring them to account, to put them to task. I take it lightly because they can’t run away from me. So, a person who is very sure of his power, and who knows positively that something cannot be done away from me, has that assuredness, that confidence in him. But when, ultimately, he decides to punish, then it’s such a quick punishment, such fast and rapid movement, that the object cannot escape. So forget this, perhaps because you will not be able to realize how Allah does it, but in your own scale, in your own level, you can realize a cat playing with a mouse.
Better give you an idea of how these two apparently opposing declarations coincide with each other and compromise with each other. A cat plays with the mouse, very surely, positively knowing that the mouse would not be able to run away. Lets it away and then plays and then catches, but I have noticed it myself, and I enjoyed it terribly. The finding meaningful plunge when the cat had decided ultimately to do away with the mouse was so fast that it was difficult for the eye to catch the movement. It was like a dashing movement, running into one single thread, and then the mouse was nowhere.
So Allah is much more sure than a cat being in such a situation, or any other thing. So that is just to give you an example of, in your own mental level, you can realize this similar phenomenon happening. So when Allah says, it does not mean that in every case he acts swiftly and takes into account every folly committed by human beings or other animals. In many other places it is exactly the opposite which has been mentioned in the Bible, in the Quran. It is swift in punishment when he decides, this is understood, when ultimately he decides in the final moment, he is so swift that nothing can escape.
