The Quran

Preface

ثُمَّ أَرسَلنا رُسُلَنا تَترىٰ ۖ كُلَّ ما جاءَ أُمَّةً رَسولُها كَذَّبوهُ ۚ فَأَتبَعنا بَعضَهُم بَعضًا وَجَعَلناهُم أَحاديثَ ۚ فَبُعدًا لِقَومٍ لا يُؤمِنونَ

Yusuf Ali

Then sent We our messengers in succession: every time there came to a people their messenger, they accused him of falsehood: so We made them follow each other (in punishment): We made them as a tale (that is told):¹ So away with a people that will not believe!

Their habitations and their organisation have been wiped out. What remains is merely a vague story of their existence, a tale that is told. Where their name remains, which is not always the case, it is only a byword, suggesting all that is unstable and ephemeral-"to point a moral and adorn a tale”.