16 Preface أَلَم نُهلِكِ الأَوَّلينَYusuf AliDid We not destroy the men of old1 (for their evil)?God’s Law is always the same. Sin or corruption prepares its own destruction. It was so with the generation of Noah. In Arab tradition it was so with the ‘Ād and the Thamūd. In our own day we see relics of prehistoric civilisations, in Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and the Aegean : these were men of wonderful skill and resource, but they went under. If our generations, which pride themselves on their science and skill, desert God’s Law, they will be certain to meet the same fate.