—for this exhortation appears in several passages of the Book of Allah. In a number of verses Allah urges His servants to journey through the land and observe how those who came before them fared. Among these is His statement in the surah of Fighting: “Have they not travelled through the land and seen how the end of those before them was? Allah destroyed them, and for the unbelievers there will be the like thereof” (Muhammad 10). Thus Allah commands travelling, which may be undertaken in two ways.
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Travelling with one’s feet: a person moves across the earth—on foot, on a mount such as a camel, in a car, aboard a plane, or by any other means—so that he may witness what befell the disbelievers and observe the state to which they were reduced.
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Travelling with one’s heart: this consists of contemplation and reflection on the reports transmitted about them.
The soundest, truest and most beneficial account of the ancients is found in the Book of Allah, exalted be He, as He says: “In their stories there is surely a lesson for people of insight” (Yusuf 111). The Quran is replete with narratives of earlier peoples—those who rejected the messengers and those who supported them—and Allah makes clear the fate of both groups.
For that reason a person should read the verses that contain the histories of former nations, ask about their meanings, and seek clarification so that he may have clear insight into the matter. The same applies to what the Sunnah has conveyed regarding past peoples, for it too contains many beneficial hadith; and if a report is authentically traced back to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, then it