9 Preface وَجاءَ فِرعَونُ وَمَن قَبلَهُ وَالمُؤتَفِكاتُ بِالخاطِئَةِYusuf AliAnd Pharaoh,1 and those before him,2 and the Cities Overthrown,3 committed habitual Sin.Pharaoh’s Messenger was Moses. See the story in 7:103-137 and the notes there. Pharaoh was inordinately proud, and his fall was proportionately great: it gradually extended to his dynasty and his people: See Appendix 5 of S. 7.If we follow the sequence of peoples whose sins destroyed them, as mentioned in 7:59-158, we begin with Noah, then have ‘Ād, and Thamūd, then the Cities of the Plain, then Midian, then the people whose prophet was Moses (who occupies a central place in the canvas), and then the Pagan Quraish, to whom came the last and the greatest of the prophets, our Prophet Muḥammad. This is the chronological sequence. Here there is no detail, nor even complete mention. But Noah is alluded to last, and ‘Ād and Thamūd mentioned first, because the latter two belong to Arab tradition, and this is specially addressed to the Pagans of Mecca. Pharaoh is mentioned rather than Moses for the same reason, and any others are “those before Pharaoh”.The Cities Overthrown: Sodom and Gomorrah, Cities of the Plain, to whom Lot preached see 9:70, n. 1330; and 7:80-84, n. 1049.