If you were on the beach in Indonesia that morning... would you have lived?
If God wants to save anyone, He can save him.
I don't speak for myself: I hope to be saved, I plead God Most Gracious to save me; no one can compel God to do anything; it is up to Him and every affair is by His hand (i.e. by His will).
When the punishment comes on people (after being warned of their idolatry by some warners among themselves, but the people did not listen to the advice and went on in their enthusiasm and idolatry) ... when the punishment comes, God usually saves the righteous people who devote themselves to Him alone without any other patron or associate, then the punishment will settle on non-believers.
Example:
When the Children of Israel disobeyed God's commandments and they worked in the Sabbath and went to trade and they went fishing, some people forbade them, and others were silent.
So they divided into 3 groups:
- one party worked and fished in the Sabbath.
- another party saw that, they did not themselves work or fish, but they were silent,
- the third party forbade such disobedience.
So
God saved the third party only: those who forbade the disobedience.
As in the Quran 7: 165
فَلَمَّا نَسُواْ مَا ذُكِّرُواْ بِهِ أَنجَيْنَا الَّذِينَ يَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ السُّوءِ وَأَخَذْنَا الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ بِعَذَابٍ بَئِيسٍ بِمَا كَانُواْ يَفْسُقُونَ
The explanation:
(
But when they neglected [the prohibition of the fishing on the Sabbath] that they had been admonished with, We saved those who forbade evil, but We overtook those who wronged [themselves] with disgracing punishment [by their enemies], because of their trespass.
And when they turned in arrogance against that forbidding [: that they should not fish or work on the Sabbath], We said to them: "Be [like] apes: 'despised and rejected'.")
This was said to them by the tongue of the king of Elath: a righteous man: one of them.
Or
if the believers are silent about the idolatry and the wrong-doing of their community --> then they will be included in the punishment.
As in the Quran 8: 25
وَاتَّقُواْ فِتْنَةً لاَّ تُصِيبَنَّ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُواْ مِنكُمْ خَآصَّةً وَاعْلَمُواْ أَنَّ اللّهَ شَدِيدُ الْعِقَابِ
The explanation:
(
And ward off a trial which shall surely not afflict in particular the wrong-doers among you; and know that God is Severe at punishment.)
It means: When the punishment comes it will include them all without exception.
quran-ayat.co