يُوسُف : ١٠٩

  • وَمَآ And not
  • أَرۡسَلۡنَا We sent
  • مِن before you
  • قَبۡلِكَ before you
  • إِلَّا but
  • رِجَالٗا men
  • نُّوحِيٓ We revealed
  • إِلَيۡهِم to them
  • مِّنۡ from (among)
  • أَهۡلِ (the) people
  • ٱلۡقُرَىٰٓۗ (of) the townships
  • أَفَلَمۡ So have not
  • يَسِيرُواْ they traveled
  • فِي in
  • ٱلۡأَرۡضِ the earth
  • فَيَنظُرُواْ and seen
  • كَيۡفَ how
  • كَانَ was
  • عَٰقِبَةُ (the) end
  • ٱلَّذِينَ (of) those who
  • مِن (were) before them
  • قَبۡلِهِمۡۗ (were) before them
  • وَلَدَارُ And surely the home
  • ٱلۡأٓخِرَةِ (of) the Hereafter
  • خَيۡرٞ (is) best
  • لِّلَّذِينَ for those who
  • ٱتَّقَوۡاْۚ fear Allah
  • أَفَلَا Then will not
  • تَعۡقِلُونَ you use reason
And We sent not before you [as messengers] except men to whom We revealed from among the people of cities. So have they1 not traveled through the earth and observed how was the end of those before them? And the home of the Hereafter is best for those who fear Allāh; then will you not reason?
Footnotes
1 - Those who deny Prophet Muḥammad (ﷺ).
And We did not send before you [any messengers] save men inspired by revelation (yoohaa ilayhim: a variant reading has noohee ilayhim, 'to whom We revealed') - and not angels - from among the people of the towns, the principal towns, since they are more knowledgeable and wiser than the people of the desert, who are crude and ignorant. Have they, the people of Mecca, not travelled in the land and seen the nature of the consequence for those who were before them?, that is, how they ended up, when they were destroyed for denying their messengers? And verily the abode of the Hereafter, that is, the Paradise, is better for those who are wary, of God. Will they not understand? (read a-fa-laa ya'qiloon, or a-fa-laa ta'qiloon. 'Will you not understand?'), this, O people of Mecca, and so have faith?