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kadhdhabat qablahum qawmu nūḥin wa-l-ʾaḥzābu min baʿdihim wa-hammat kullu ʾummatin bi-rasūlihim li-yaʾkhudhūhu wa-jādalū bi-l-bāṭili li-yudḥiḍū bihi l-ḥaqqa fa-ʾakhadhtuhum fa-kayfa kāna ʿiqābi
The people of Noah denied before them and the [heathen] factions [who came] after them. Every nation attempted to lay hands on their apostle, and disputed erroneously to refute the truth. Then I seized them; so how was My retribution?!
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Ghafir - Verse 5
5. [Meccan disbelievers and also] the people Noah and the Confederates after them denied [their Prophets] before these; and every nation plotted against their Messenger to seize him and disputed by means of falsehood to refute therewith the Truth. Therefore, I seized them [by My Wrath] and [behold] how My Chastisement was!
In their confrontations with Divinely appointed Prophets all disbelieving opponents shared the same goal but they were ignorant of Prophets’ Divine Support;
The fate of a number of peoples of old who were astray and wrong doing are thus mentioned in terse but decisive clause:
The word Confederate (ahzab) alludes to the peoples of ‘Ad, Thamud, Pharaoh, Lot, and the like alluded to in 38:12-13:
The confederates cooperated with each other to belie the Divinely appointed Prophets whose Calls were inconsistent with the confederates’ illicit interests, lusts, and passions. They were not content with these but:
They even stepped further and resorted to falsehood to cast a veil over Truth and persisted in misleading people:
The Arabic verbal form yudhidu derives from d-h-d (“disprove, refute, obliterate”). However, their stratagems did not last since God Almighty seized them in time and chastised them. Behold Divine torment:
The ruins of their cities are visible on your routes and their evil fate is recorded in historical books and the hearts of the pious. Behold and take lessons. These Meccan tyrant disbelievers and Arab wrong doing polytheists will not have a better fate in store for them unless they change their course and think twice about their beliefs and conducts. The Verse in question presents a summary of the stratagems of the rebellious Confederates: belying, denial, conspiracy against men of Truth, making attempts to slay them, incessant propaganda for misleading the masses.
Arab polytheists resorted to the same stratagems against the Noble Prophet of Islam (S) hence there is no wonder that the Holy Qur’an warns them against entanglement with the fate of ancient people.