8 Preface فَأَهلَكنا أَشَدَّ مِنهُم بَطشًا وَمَضىٰ مَثَلُ الأَوَّلينَYusuf AliSo We destroyed (them)- stronger in power than these;- and (thus) has passed on1 the Parable of the peoples of old.The result of rebellion was destruction. And the pagan Meccan generation contemporary with the Prophet are reminded that the peoples of old who were destroyed were, many of them, more powerful than they, and that they, in disobeying God’s Law, were inviting the same fate for themselves. The events of the past have become Parables for the present and the future.