Transliteration:( Wa izaa massakumuddurru fil bahri dalla man tad'oona illaaa iyyaahu falammaa najjaakum ilal barri a'radtum; wa kaanal insaanu kafooraa )
"And when adversity touches you at sea, all those you call upon vanish [147] except Him. But when He delivers you to the land, you turn away. And man is very ungrateful [148]."
This verse refers to the behavior of the Arab polytheists, who—when struck by storms or danger at sea—would abandon their idols and call only upon Allah for rescue.
But once they were safely brought back to land, they would return to their polytheism, forgetting the One who saved them.
This reveals the hypocrisy of those who remember Allah only in crisis, yet revert to shirk and heedlessness when comfort returns.
The verse condemns this tendency in general human behavior: when people receive Divine favors, instead of showing gratitude, they displease Allah through sins and negligence.
The phrase "man is very ungrateful" is general, and includes:
Negligent believers, who forget Allah after being helped.
Disbelievers, who knowingly reject His favors.
67. And when harm touches you upon the sea, those that you call upon vanish from you except Him. But when He brings you safe to land, you turn away. And man is ever ungrateful.
Allah tells us that when harm befalls people, they call on Him, turning to Him and sincerely beseeching Him. Hence Allah says:
(And when harm touches you upon the sea, those that you call upon vanish from you except Him.) meaning, everything they worship besides Allah disappears from their hearts and minds. Similar happened to `Ikrimah bin Abi Jahl when he fled from the Messenger of Allah after the conquest of Makkah, and headed for Ethiopia. He set out across the sea to go to Ethiopia, but a stormy wind arose. The people said to one another: “None can save you except Allah Alone.” `Ikrimah said to himself, “By Allah if none can benefit on the sea except Allah then no doubt none can benefit on land except Allah. `O Allah! I promise You that if You bring me safely out of this, I will go and put my hand in the hand of Muhammad and surely, I will find him full of pity, kindness and mercy.”’ They came out of it safely and were delivered from the sea. Then `Ikrimah went to the Messenger of Allah , and declared his Islam, and he became a good Muslim, may Allah be pleased with him.
(But when He brings you safe to land, you turn away.) means, you forget what you remembered of Divine Oneness (Tawhid) when you were on the sea, and you turn away from calling on Him Alone with no partner or associate.
(And man is ever ungrateful.) means, by nature he forgets and denies His blessings, except for those whom Allah protects.
(17:67) When a calamity befalls you on the sea, all those whom you invoke forsake you except Him.[84] But when He delivers you safely to the shore you turn away from Him, for man is indeed most thankless.
84. That is, this is a proof of the fact that your real nature knows no other Lord than Allah, and you feel in the depths of your hearts that He alone possesses the real power of every gain or loss. Had it not been so, man would never have invoked Allah at the time when he realized that no other helper could remove his misfortune.
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