(13–14) “We certainly destroyed the generations before you when they wronged, even though their messengers had come to them with clear proofs; yet they would not believe. Thus do We requite the guilty. Then We made you successors in the land after them, so that We may see how you act.”

The Most High informs us that He destroyed the former nations because of their wrongdoing and disbelief. Clear proofs had come to them at the hands of the messengers, and the truth had become evident, yet they neither submitted to it nor believed. He therefore inflicted upon them His punishment, which cannot be averted from any guilty person who dares to violate what Allah has made sacred. This is His established way with all nations.

“Then We made you”—those being addressed—“successors in the land after them, so that We may see how you act.” If you take heed and learn from those before you, follow Allah’s signs, and affirm His messengers, you will be saved in this world and the Hereafter.

But if you act as the wrongdoers before you acted, He will inflict upon you what He inflicted upon them. Whoever has been warned has been left with no excuse.