Page 15 - Perished Nations

Devising to "stone Shu’ayb", who had done nothing but invite them to
goodness, the Madyan people were punished by the wrath of Allah and
they perished as described in the verses above. The Madyan people are
not the only example. On the contrary, as Shu’ayb (as) noted while talking
with his people, many previous communities before the Madyan people
had perished. After Madyan, many other communities also were destroyed
by Allah’s wrath.
In the following pages, we will describe the aforementioned communi-
ties which perished and their remnants. In the Qur’an, these communities
are described in detail and people are invited to ponder on and take war-
ning from how these people ended up.
At this point, the Qur’an draws particular attention to the fact that the
majority of the communities which perished had established advanced ci-
vilisations. In the Qur’an, this characteristic of the communities which pe-
rished is stressed in the following verse:
But how many generations before them did We destroy (for their sins) -
stronger in power than they? Then did they wander through the land: was
there any place of escape (for them)? (Surah Qaf: 36)
In the verse, two characteristics of the peoples which perished are par-
ticularly emphasised. The first is their being "stronger in power". This con-
veys that the communities which perished had established disciplined and
strong military-bureaucratic systems and snatched power in the territory
they lived through force. The second point is that the aforementioned com-
munities founded big cities distinguished by their impressive architectural
characteristics.
It is noteworthy that these characteristics belong as well to the current
civilisation, which has established an elaborate world-culture through to-
day’s technology and science, and has founded centralised states, huge ci-
ties, yet denies Allah, forgetting that all is made possible by His power. But,
as it is said in the verse, the civilisations they established could not save
the communities which perished, since their civilisations were based on
the denial of Allah.
A considerable number of the incidents of destruction, some of which

Perished Nations
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