﴿ أَلَمْ يَأْتِهِمْ نَبَأُ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ قَوْمِ نُوحٍۢ وَعَادٍۢ وَثَمُودَ وَقَوْمِ إِبْرَٰهِيمَ وَأَصْحَٰبِ مَدْيَنَ وَٱلْمُؤْتَفِكَٰتِ ۚ أَتَتْهُمْ رُسُلُهُم بِٱلْبَيِّنَٰتِ ۖ فَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ لِيَظْلِمَهُمْ وَلَٰكِن كَانُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ ﴾

“Have, then, the stories of those who preceded them never come within the ken of these [hypocrites and deniers of the truth]?-[the stories] of Noah's people, and of [the tribes of] `Ad and Thamud, and of Abraham's people, and of the folk of Madyan, and of the cities that were overthrown? To [all of] them their apostles had come with all evidence of the truth. [but they rejected them:] and so it was not God who wronged them [by His punishment], but it was they who wronged themselves.”

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.