82 Preface أَفَلَم يَسيروا فِي الأَرضِ فَيَنظُروا كَيفَ كانَ عاقِبَةُ الَّذينَ مِن قَبلِهِم ۚ كانوا أَكثَرَ مِنهُم وَأَشَدَّ قُوَّةً وَآثارًا فِي الأَرضِ فَما أَغنىٰ عَنهُم ما كانوا يَكسِبونَYusuf AliDo they not travel through the earth and see what was the End of those before them? They were more numerous than these and superior in strength1 and in the traces (they have left) in the land: Yet all that they accomplished was of no profit to them. Cf. 9:69. For any generation to take inordinate pride in its own single achievements in science or skill becomes ridiculous if we consider the broad stream of history- In the first place, men will find that a great deal of what they attribute to their own merits only became possible owing to the earlier work of their predecessors. Secondly, many of their predecessors were more numerous and mightier in power than they, although the perspective of time may have reduced the apparent depth of their influence, and the monuments which they have left behind may have suffered from the destroying hand of Time. Thirdly, and most important of all, when they forgot God and His inexorable Law, nothing of their own handiwork profited them: they perished in the common ruin as all vanities must perish. Cf. also 40:21 above, and n. 4387. See how the recapitulation rounds off the argument.