Al-Hijr
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[15:63]
They answered: "Nay, but we have come unto thee with [the announcement of] something that they [who are given to evil] have always been wont to call in question,

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* v.63 : Lit., “that about which they have persistently been (kānū) in doubt” – i.e., the doom which, in this world or in the hereafter, is the inevitable consequence of deliberate sinning: a prediction which the sinners themselves so often deride (cf. 6:57-58, 8:32, 11:8, and the corresponding notes). To my mind, this sentence constitutes the reason for the repetition, in this sūrah, of the stories of Lot’s people and the other sinful communities of old that were punished for their persistent transgressions against all moral laws.