Ṭāhā

أَفَلَمْ يَهْدِ لَهُمْ كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا قَبْلَهُم مّـِنَ الْقُرُونِ يَمْشُونَ فِي مَسَاكِنِهِمْ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لاَيَاتٍ لأُوْلِي النُّهَي

وَلَوْلاَ كَلِمَةٌ سَبَقَتْ مِن رَّبّـِكَ لَكَانَ لِزَاماً وَأَجَلٌ مُسَمًّي

128. “Does it not then guide such men (to call to mind) how many of the generations We did destroy before them, amid whose dwellings they (today) walk about? Verily there are signs in this for those (endowed) with understanding.”
129. “And had there not been a decree that went forth before from your Lord and an appointed term, (their punishment) would necessarily have come.”

The Arabic term /nuha/ is the plural form of /nuhyah/ which means something that prohibits man from doing some indecent things. In Arabic, the ‘intellect’ is called /nuhyah/ since it dissuades man from the low desires. Therefore, the true intellect, besides thinking and understanding, causes man to ward off some dangers and vices. The Qur’anic word /qarn/ means a nation or a group of people who live in the same time. It is sometimes used for the time itself, too. The Arabic term /lizam/ means ‘a necessary and firm affair’.

And, in view of the fact that in the previous verses several matters concerning the sinners were discussed, this verse has pointed to one of the best and the most effective ways of awareness, i.e. the careful study of the history of the former generations. It says:

Those men are the same people who were involved with the painful punishment of Allah and, now, these people haunt their ruined houses. In their different travels to Yemen, travelers may see the houses of the people of ‘Ad, and in their way to Syria they confront the ruined dwellings of the people of Thamud, and in their voyage to Palestine they pass by the houses of the people of Lot, which had been destroyed upside down. They usually see their trucks but they do not take an example.

Yes, in this regard the verse says:

The matter of ‘taking an example’ from the history of the former nations is one of the subjects on which the Qur’an and Islamic traditions have emphasized very much. A tradition narrated from the Prophet of Islam (S) indicates that the Messenger of Allah said:

“The most neglectful people is he who takes no admonition from the change of the world.”

And he does not contemplate on the turns of days and nights. The next verse, indeed, is an answer to the question which may arise here, asking why Allah does not arrange the same thing upon this group of sinners that He arranged for the former sinners. The holy Qur’an says:

This ‘Divine decree’ is an indication to the command of creation containing the freedom of human kind. Since, if any guilty person immediately and without any respite be punished, faith and righteous deeds may become nearly constrained and compelling, and they will often be done because of fear and terror of immediate punishment. Thus, in this case, it will not be a means of development, which is the main goal. Moreover, if it were judged that all wrong doers should be punished at once, there would remain no one alive on the earth.¹⁰

Therefore, there should be a respite for the sinners until they might be aware and pave the path of improvement, and all the travelers of the path of truth also find an opportunity for self-improvement.