(8–10) “Have they not reflected upon themselves? Allah did not create the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them except in truth and for an appointed term. Yet many people surely disbelieve in meeting their Lord. * Have they not traveled through the land and seen how those before them ended? They were mightier than them, tilled the earth, and developed it more than these people have. Their messengers came to them with clear proofs. Allah would never wrong them; rather, they wronged themselves. * Then the end of those who did evil was the worst, because they denied Allah’s signs and used to ridicule them.”

That is: Have those who deny Allah’s messengers and the meeting with Him not reflected “upon themselves”? Within their own selves are signs through which they know (1) that the One who brought them into being from nothing will restore them thereafter. Nor does it befit the One who moved them through successive stages—from a sperm-drop to a clinging clot, then to a lump of flesh, then to a human being into whom the soul was breathed, then to a child, a young man, an old man, and finally one of decrepit age—to leave them aimless and neglected, without their being forbidden or commanded, rewarded or punished. “Allah did not create the heavens and the earth and all that lies between them except in truth”—[that is,] to test which of you is best in deeds. “And for an appointed term”—meaning that the duration of both has been fixed until a set time at which this world will end, the Resurrection will come, and the earth will be replaced by another earth, as will the heavens.

“Yet many people surely disbelieve in meeting their Lord.” For that reason, they have not prepared to meet Him, nor have they believed His messengers who informed them of it. This disbelief rests upon no proof; rather, decisive proofs establish the resurrection and recompense. ⦗638⦘ He therefore directed them to travel through the land and consider the fate of those who denied their messengers and defied their commands. Those nations were mightier than these people and left more works upon the earth by constructing palaces and other structures, planting trees, cultivating crops, and channeling rivers. Yet their strength availed them nothing, nor did their achievements benefit them when they denied their messengers, who had brought them clear proofs demonstrating the truth and the soundness of what they conveyed. When people look upon the traces of those nations, all they find are vanished nations, destroyed peoples, homes left desolate after them, and unceasing condemnation of them by others. This is an immediate recompense—a foretaste and beginning of the recompense of the Hereafter.

Allah did not wrong any of these destroyed nations by destroying them. Rather, they wronged themselves and brought destruction upon themselves.

“Then the end of those who did evil was the worst”—that is, the vile and appalling condition. That, in turn, drove them to “deny Allah’s signs and ridicule them.” This was a punishment for their evil and their sins.

Then such ridicule and denial become a cause of the greatest punishments and the most grievous exemplary chastisements.