Allah is asking. Not commanding. Asking. 'Will they not turn?' The interrogative is the most loving form of command in the Qur'an.

There is a teaching from al-Fudayl ibn ʿIyāḍ. He said: I read 5:74 a thousand times in my life. The first hundred times I read it as instruction. The next hundred I read it as warning. After that, I read it as the question of a Friend who was tired of waiting. The reading changed me. The verse stopped being theology and became a relationship. Allah was asking. Allah was waiting. Allah was patient enough to phrase His invitation as a question. The arrogance of refusing the question is greater than the arrogance of refusing a command, because the question is more tender. Picture the scene: Allah at the door, asking, will you not? You inside, hearing, refusing. The image breaks the believer's heart when he sees it honestly. So tonight, hear the question with new ears. Not as a command you have postponed. As a tender invitation you have been refusing. Answer it. Walk to the door. Yā Allāh, You who ask us when You could command us, accept our slow answer. Take our turning even though it has taken too long. Make our final reply to Your eternal question the matching word: yes, we turn. Āmīn.