But the Jews and the Christians say, "We are the children of Allāh and His beloved." Say, "Then why does He punish you for your sins?" Rather, you are human beings from among those He has created. He forgives whom He wills, and He punishes whom He wills. And to Allāh belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them, and to Him is the [final] destination.
Sahih International
وَقَالَتِ
waqālati
And said
Word breakdown
وَ
Harf · Conjunctionand
قَالَتِ
Fi'l · VerbAnd said
to say, speak, tell
1,722× in the Quran · Extremely common
Grammar rules
وَقَالَتِ (And said) is a past tense verb — the action already happened and is complete.
We translate it in past tense — "did", "created", "said", etc.
Lesson 8 · Verbs — Past & Presentوَقَالَتِ (And said) starts with وَ, the most common Arabic word — it means "and".
We add "and" to connect this to what came before.
Lesson 4 · Particles