And if not that a disaster should strike them for what their hands put forth [of sins] and they would say, "Our Lord, why did You not send us a messenger so we could have followed Your verses and been among the believers?"...1
Translation: Saheeh International (English)
1 The conclusion of the sentence is understood to be "...We would not have sent messengers," meaning that Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) sent messengers and sent Muḥammad (ﷺ) with the final scripture to mankind so that no one could claim that punishment was imposed unjustly without warning.
And if a divine punishment were to afflict them due to the sins and disbelief they were upon, they would have argued: “why did you not send a messenger to us, so we could have followed your ayaat and acted upon them, and have been from the true believers who follow your commandments. If it was not for that we would have hastened the punishment. However, we delayed it so that we may be excused by sending a messenger to them.”