Before their time, none of the cities which we have destroyed, believed: will these men, then, believe?
And we sent none, previous to thee, but men to whom we had revealed ourselves. Ask ye the people who are warned by Scriptures,2 if ye know it not.
We gave them not bodies which could dispense with food: and they were not to live for ever.
Then made we good our promise to them; and we delivered them and whom we pleased, and we destroyed the transgressors.
And now have we sent down to you "the book," in which is your warning: What, will ye not then understand?
And how many a guilty city have we broken down, and raised up after it other peoples:
And when they felt our vengeance, lo! they fled from it.
"Flee not," said the angels in mockery, "but come back to that wherein ye revelled, and to your abodes! Questions will haply be put to you."
They said, "Oh, woe to us! Verily we have been evil doers."
And this ceased not to be their cry, until we made them like reaped corn, extinct.