“16–17. When We intend to destroy a town, We issue a decree concerning its affluent inhabitants, whereupon they defiantly disobey therein. Thus the decree becomes binding against it, and We utterly destroy it. How many generations have We destroyed after Noah! Your Lord is sufficient as All-Aware and All-Seeing of the sins of His servants.”

Allah Most High informs us that when He intends to destroy one of the unjust towns and eradicate it through punishment, He issues a creational decree concerning its affluent inhabitants. They then defiantly disobey therein, and their tyranny intensifies. “Thus the decree becomes binding against it”—that is, the inescapable sentence of punishment—“and We utterly destroy it.”

These were many nations whom Allah annihilated through punishment after the people of Noah, such as ‘Ād, Thamūd, the people of Lot, and others whom Allah punished when their transgression became rampant and their disbelief intensified. [Allah] sent down His mighty punishment upon them.

“Your Lord is sufficient as All-Aware and All-Seeing of the sins of His servants.” Thus they need not fear any injustice from Him, for He punishes them for what they have done.