none before them had committed. Besides associating partners with Allah, ‘Ād were tyrannical and arrogant, indulged in worldly luxury, exercised brutal force, and said:

“Who is mightier than us in strength?”

Besides associating partners with Allah, the people of Midian dealt unjustly in matters of wealth; and Pharaoh’s people spread corruption in the land and exalted themselves.

Each nation’s punishment was commensurate with its sins and crimes. ‘Ād were punished with a fierce, raging wind that nothing could withstand. The people of Lot were subjected to forms of punishment inflicted on no other nation. He combined their destruction with pelting them with stones from the sky, obliterating their sight, overturning their dwellings upon them—turning them upside down—and causing the earth to swallow them into the lowest depths. He punished the people of Shu‘ayb with fire that consumed both them and the wealth they had acquired through injustice and aggression. As for Thamūd, He destroyed them with the mighty blast, and they died instantly.

If this was His punishment of these people, whose sin, besides associating partners with Him, was hamstringing the she-camel Allah had made a sign for them, then whoever violates Allah’s prohibitions, treats His commands and prohibitions with contempt, slaughters His servants, and sheds their blood will suffer a more severe punishment. Whoever considers the state of the world, past and present, and the punishments inflicted upon those who spread corruption in the land, shed blood unjustly, stir up strife, and disdain what Allah has made inviolable, will know that deliverance in this world and the Hereafter belongs to those who believe and are mindful of Allah.