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wa-ʾin tukadhdhibū fa-qad kadhdhaba ʾumamun min qablikum wa-mā ʿalā r-rasūli ʾillā l-balāghu l-mubīnu
If you impugn [the Apostle’s teaching], then [other] nations have impugned [likewise] before you, and the Apostle’s duty is only to communicate in clear terms.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-‘Ankabut - Verse 18
18. “And if you reject (the Message), so did generations before you and nothing is incumbent on the messenger but a plain delivery (of the message).”
The rejection of the opponents should not hinder the act of propagation. In this verse, as a threat and also as heedlessness to them, Abraham (as) says:
And, of course, they were punished severely with a painful chastisement. The verse continues saying:
The objective of “generations before you” is the people of Noah and the nations who came to live after them.