26 Preface قَد مَكَرَ الَّذينَ مِن قَبلِهِم فَأَتَى اللَّهُ بُنيانَهُم مِنَ القَواعِدِ فَخَرَّ عَلَيهِمُ السَّقفُ مِن فَوقِهِم وَأَتاهُمُ العَذابُ مِن حَيثُ لا يَشعُرونَYusuf AliThose before them did also plot (against God’s Way): but God took their structures from their foundations, and the roof fell down on them from above; and the Wrath seized them from directions they did not perceive.1Evil will always devise plots against the Prophets of God. So was it with al Muṣṭafā, and so wait with the Prophets before him. But the imposing structures which the ungodly build up (metaphorically) collapse at the Command of God, and they are often punished from quarters from which they least expected punishment, (Cf. 16:45 and, 59:25). For example, the Quraish were confident in their number's, their organisation. and their superior equipment. But on the field of Badr they collapsed where they expected victory.