(12–15) “Before them, the people of Noah, ‘Ād, and Pharaoh, lord of the stakes, denied the messengers; * as did Thamūd, the people of Lot, and the people of the Thicket. Those were the confederates. * Every one of them denied the messengers, and so My punishment became due. * These people await only a single blast, from which there will be no recovery.”

Allah Most High warns them that He may do to them what He did to the nations before them, who were mightier than they and more formidable in their alliance upon falsehood: “the people of Noah and ‘Ād”—the people of Hūd—“and Pharaoh, lord of the stakes,” meaning one who possessed vast armies and tremendous power.

“And Thamūd”—the people of Sālih—“the people of Lot, and the people of the Thicket,” meaning the densely intertwined trees and gardens; they were the people of Shuayb. “Those were the confederates” who joined forces, with their strength, their numbers, and their armaments, to reject the truth, but none of that availed them in the least.

“Every one” of these peoples “denied the messengers, and so” Allah’s “punishment became due” upon them. What, then, could absolve or exonerate these people, so that what befell those earlier peoples would not befall them?

Let them therefore await “a single blast, from which there will be no recovery,” meaning that it cannot be recalled or repelled. It will destroy them ⦗711⦘ and utterly eradicate them if they persist in their present course.