“And [We destroyed] Korah, Pharaoh, and Haman. Moses certainly came to them with clear proofs, but they acted arrogantly in the land; yet they could not escape Us. Each We seized for his sin: against some We sent a stone-laden storm; some were overtaken by the Blast; some We caused the earth to swallow; and some We drowned. Allah would never wrong them, but it was they who wronged themselves.”

The same was true of Korah, Pharaoh, and Haman. When Allah sent them Moses son of Imrān with clear signs and radiant proofs, they refused to submit and acted arrogantly in the land [toward Allah’s servants, whom they humiliated, and toward the truth, which they rejected. Consequently, they could not escape when punishment descended upon them]. “They could not escape” Allah or elude Him; rather, they yielded and surrendered.

“Each” of these denying nations “We seized for its sin,” in proportion to that sin and with a punishment befitting it. “Against some We sent a stone-laden storm”—that is, a punishment that pelted them—as with the people of ʿĀd, when Allah sent upon them the barren wind and “subjected it to them for seven nights and eight days without cease, so that you would see the people lying fallen, as though they were hollow trunks of date palms.”

“Some were overtaken by the Blast,” as with the people of Sālih; “some We caused the earth to swallow,” as with Korah; “and some We drowned,” as with Pharaoh, Haman, and their forces.

“Allah would never”—that is, it neither becomes nor befits Him, exalted is He—“wrong them,” because His justice is perfect and He has absolutely no need of any created being. “But it was they who wronged themselves.” They denied their souls their rightful due—the purpose toward which they ought to have directed themselves—for they were created to worship Allah alone. Instead, these people misdirected their souls and occupied them with desires and sins. They thus harmed them to the utmost while imagining that they were benefiting them.