﴿ كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا مِن قَبْلِهِم مِّن قَرْنٍۢ فَنَادَوا۟ وَّلَاتَ حِينَ مَنَاصٍۢ ﴾

“How many a generation have We destroyed before their time [for this very sin]! And [how] they called [unto Us] when it was too late to escape!”

How many — in other words many — a generation a community of past communities We have destroyed before them and they cried out when the chastisement was sent down on them when it was no longer the time for escape that is to say the time was not one for fleeing the suffixed tā’ of wa-lāta is extra; the sentence is a circumstantial qualifier referring to the subject of the verb nādaw ‘they cried out’ in other words they called for help but the situation was such that there could be no escape or deliverance; but still the Meccan disbelievers have not taken heed from their example.