Learning the Lessons of the Past

Allah says;

أَوَلَمْ يَهْدِ لَهُمْ كَمْ أَهْلَكْنَا مِن قَبْلِهِم مِّنَ الْقُرُونِ ...

Is it not guidance for them: how many generations We have destroyed before them

Allah says: will these people who deny the Messengers not learn from the nations who came before them, whom Allah destroyed for their rejection of His Messengers and their opposition to what the Messengers brought them of the straight path. No trace is left of them whatsoever.

هَلْ تُحِسُّ مِنْهُمْ مِّنْ أَحَدٍ أَوْ تَسْمَعُ لَهُمْ رِكْزاً

Can you find a single one of them or hear even a whisper of them. (19:98)

Allah says:

... يَمْشُونَ فِي مَسَاكِنِهِمْ ...

in whose dwellings they do walk about,

meaning, these disbelievers walk about in the places where those disbelievers used to live, but they do not see any of those who used to live there, for they have gone --

كَأَن لَّمْ يَغْنَوْاْ فِيهَآ

As if they had never lived there. (11:68)

This is like the Ayat:

فَتِلْكَ بُيُوتُهُمْ خَاوِيَةً بِمَا ظَلَمُواْ

These are their houses in utter ruin, for they did wrong. (27:52)

فَكَأَيِّن مِّن قَرْيَةٍ أَهْلَكْنَـهَا وَهِىَ ظَالِمَةٌ فَهِىَ خَاوِيَةٌ عَلَى عُرُوشِهَا وَبِئْرٍ مُّعَطَّلَةٍ وَقَصْرٍ مَّشِيدٍ أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُواْ فِى الاٌّرْضِ

And many a township did We destroy while they were given to wrongdoing, so that it lie in ruins, and (many) a deserted well and lofty castle! Have they not traveled through the land! until:

وَلَـكِن تَعْمَى الْقُلُوبُ الَّتِى فِى الصُّدُورِ

but it is the hearts which are in the breasts that grow blind. (22:45-46)

Allah says here:

... إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ ...

Verily, therein indeed are signs.

meaning, in the fact that these people are gone and have been destroyed, and in what happened to them because they disbelieved the Messengers, and how those who believed in them were saved, there are many signs, proofs and important lessons.

... أَفَلَا يَسْمَعُونَ ﴿٢٦﴾

Would they not then listen!

means, to the stories of those who came before and what happened to them.