The Quran

Preface

أَلَم يَأتِكُم نَبَأُ الَّذينَ مِن قَبلِكُم قَومِ نوحٍ وَعادٍ وَثَمودَ ۛ وَالَّذينَ مِن بَعدِهِم ۛ لا يَعلَمُهُم إِلَّا اللَّهُ ۚ جاءَتهُم رُسُلُهُم بِالبَيِّناتِ فَرَدّوا أَيدِيَهُم في أَفواهِهِم وَقالوا إِنّا كَفَرنا بِما أُرسِلتُم بِهِ وَإِنّا لَفي شَكٍّ مِمّا تَدعونَنا إِلَيهِ مُريبٍ

Yusuf Ali

Has not the story reached you, (O people!), of those who (went) before you? - of the people of Noah, and ‘Ād, and Thamūd? - And of those who (came) after them? None knows them¹ but God. To them came messengers with Clear (Signs); but they put their hands² up to their mouths, and said: “We do deny (the mission) on which ye have been sent, and we are really in suspicious (disquieting) doubt³ as to that to which ye invite us.”

Even the names of all the Prophets are not known to men, much less the details of their story. If some “news” of them (for the word translated “story” may also be translated “news”) reaches us, it is to give us spiritual instruction for our own lives.
That is, either that the unbelievers metaphorically put their hands up to the mouths of the Prophets to try to prevent them from proclaiming their Message, or that the unbelievers, put up their fingers to their own mouths, as much as to say “Don’t listen to them,” or bit their own fingers in token of incontinent rage. Whatever construction we adopt, the meaning is that they were intolerant of their prophets even as Quraish were intolerant of Al Muṣṭafā and did all they could to suppress God’s Truth.
Cf. 11:62. The distinction between Skakk and rayb may be noted. Shakk is intellectual doubt, a doubt as to fact: is it so, or is it not? Rayb is something more than intellectual doubt; a suspicion that there is fraud or deception; something that upsets your moral belief, and causes a disquiet in your soul- In 52:30, it is used as equivalent to “calamity” or “disaster”, some punishment or evil. Both kinds of doubts and suspicions are hinted at against Prophets of God (see also 34:54).