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wa-mā kāna rabbuka muhlika l-qurā ḥattā yabʿatha fī ʾummihā rasūlan yatlū ʿalayhim ʾāyātinā wa-mā kunnā muhlikī l-qurā ʾillā wa-ʾahluhā ẓālimūna
Your Lord would not destroy the towns until He had raised an apostle in their mother city to recite to them Our signs. We would never destroy the towns except when their people were wrongdoers.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-Qasas - Verse 59
59. “And your Lord never destroyed the towns until He raised in their centers a messenger, reciting to them Our signs, and We never destroyed the towns except when their people were unjust.”
This verse, in fact, is the answer of the probable question saying that: if it is so that Allah (s.w.t.) destroys the disobedient and rebellious ones, then why did He not annihilate by His punishment the pagans of Mecca and Medina who committed the utmost contumacy and there was no ignorance and crime that they did not commit? The Qur’an says:
Yes, He will not punish the people of the towns unless He completes the argument and sends messengers with explicit instructions. Moreover, after completing the argument, He has constant attention to their deeds, and if they commit any injustice or oppression that deserves punishment, He will punish them. The verse continues saying:
The application of the Arabic phrases /ma kana rabbuka/ (Your Lord never) and /ma kunna/ (We never) in the verse is an evidence over this fact that it has been the constant and permanent way of treatment of Allah that He never punishes any nation before giving them enough proofs. The Qur’anic sentence:
points to this fact that it is not necessary that He raises a messenger in every town and city. It is enough that a messenger to be raised in a great center where the people of mind and wisdom of a nation are gathered and the news are quickly scattered from it throughout the province and the people of that locality can get the news they need. The news of the raise of the Prophet of Islam in the land of Mecca spread throughout Arabia peninsula in a short time, and it went beyond it since Mecca was ‘Mother of cities’; it was both the spiritual center of Hijaz (Mecca and Medina) and a commercial center. It reached even the important centers of the civilization of that time during a short period.
Therefore, the verse states a universal and a general principle, and, thus, the belief of some commentators who say it refers to Mecca is completely baseless; and the usage of the Arabic phrase /fi ’ummiha/ (in their centers) is also a general meaning since the Arabic word /’umm/ means ‘mother’ and ‘the main center’, and it is not allocated to Mecca.