22فَهَل عَسَيتُم إِن تَوَلَّيتُم أَن تُفسِدوا فِي الأَرضِ وَتُقَطِّعوا أَرحامَكُمMuhammad Asad[Ask them:] "Would you, perchance, after having turned away [from God's commandment, prefer to revert to your old ways, and] spread corruption on earth, and [once again] cut asunder your ties of kinship?1The above interpolations are in tune with the explanation of this passage advanced by almost all of the classical commentators, who regard this rhetoricaj "question" as an allusion to the chaotic conditions of pre-Islamic Arabia, its senseless internecine wars, and the moral darkness from which Islam had freed its followers. Nevertheless, this verse has, like the whole of the passage of which it forms a part, a timeless import as well.