Has not the tidings the tale of those before them reached them — the folk of Noah and ‘Ād the folk of Hūd and Thamūd the folk of Sālih and the folk of Abraham and the dwellers of Midian the folk of Shu‘ayb and the Deviant cities? the cities of the folk of Lot meaning its inhabitants. Their messengers brought them clear proofs with miracles but they denied them and so were destroyed. God would never have wronged them by punishing them for no sin on their part but they wronged themselves by committing sin.
