Surah Taha, Ayah 129

Many Nations were destroyed and in Them is a Lesson

Allah, the Exalted, says,

أَفَلَمْ يَهْدِ

(Is it not a guidance for them...) This is addressed to those who reject what the Prophet came to them with: `We destroyed those who denied the Messengers from the previous nations before them. They showed open hostility, so now there is not trace of them and none of them are left. This is witnessed by the empty homes that these people left behind, and which others have now inherited, moving about in the dwellings of those of the past.'

إِنَّ فِى ذلِكَ لأيَـتٍ لاٌّوْلِى النُّهَى

(Verily, in this are signs indeed for men of understanding.) This means those who have sound intellect and correct understanding. This is as Allah says,

Commentary

The word ھُدٰی - (guidance) implied in the first sentence of verse 128 can refer either to the Qur'an or to the Holy Prophet ﷺ and the meaning would be, "Did not the Qur'an or the Holy Prophet ﷺ direct them i.e. the people of Makkah and tell them about the nations and the societies who were destroyed because they disobeyed the commands of Allah and turned away from the message brought to them by the Holy Prophet ﷺ ، and whose houses and lands are now occupied by them?" It is also possible that the word ھُدٰی (guidance) may refer to God in which case the meaning would be "Did God not direct."

God settled Satan as well as Adam on the earth and gave due warning in the very beginning that clashes of interest between the two would go on till Doomsday. Satan would make every possible effort to mislead mankind, therefore, people should make it a point to treat him as their greatest enemy and try to stay far away from his inducements. To give further guidance to man, God periodically sent him His messengers, or prophets, who instructed him in the reality of life in a language which was clearly intelligible to him. Now, the success or failure of man depends on his own acceptance or rejection of the Prophet’s guidance. One who accepts this guidance will once again be ushered into the comfortable life of paradise, whereas the life of one who fails to accept it will be a very severe one, from which he will never be able to escape. Those who turn away from God’s guidance will be reduced in the Hereafter to blindness, being deprived of both the eyes. The reason for this is that such people are given eyes in the world in order to be able to see and recognise God’s signs. But they live in such a manner that, when they encounter God’s signs, they fail to recognise them. Thus, they prove that, in spite of having eyes, they are really blind. So God will ask on that Day, what use it had been to give eyes to those who were determined to be blind.