When Our messengers brought Abraham the good news [of the birth of Isaac] they [also] said, "We are indeed going to destroy the people of this city, for the people of this city are truly wrongdoers." 31 He said: verily Lut is therein. They said: we know better who is therein: we are to deliver him and his household, save his wife; she is to be of the lingerers. 32 And when Our messengers came to Lot, he was distressed for them and felt for them great discomfort. They said, "Fear not, nor grieve. Indeed, we will save you and your family, except your wife; she is to be of those who remain behind. 33 Verily we are about to bring down upon the inhabitants of this city a scourge from the heaven, for they have been transgressing. 34 And indeed We have left thereof an evident Ayah (a lesson and a warning and a sign the place where the Dead Sea is now in Palestine) for a folk who understand. 35 To Midian We sent their brother Shu'aib. He said: "O people, worship God and be ready for the Day of Resurrection. Do no evil, and create no mischief in the land." 36 But they gave him the lie. Thereupon an earthquake overtook them: and then they lay lifeless, in their very homes, on the ground. 37 And the 'Aad and Thamud and of a surety their destruction is apparent unto you from their dwellings. The Satan made fairseeming their works unto them, and so kept them off from the path, while they were endued with sight. 38 Korah, the Pharaoh, and Haman were also destroyed. Moses had brought them illustrious miracles, but they were puffed-up with pride in the land and they could not defeat Us. 39 So each We punished for his sin; of them was he on whom We sent down a violent storm, and of them was he whom the rumbling overtook, and of them was he whom We made to be swallowed up by the earth, and of them was he whom We drowned; and it did not beseem Allah that He should be unjust to them, but they were unjust to their own souls. 40 The likeness of those who have taken to them protectors, apart from God, is as the likeness of the spider that takes to itself a house; and surely the frailest of houses is the house of the spider, did they but know. 41 God knows whatever thing they call upon apart from Him; He is the All-mighty, the All-wise. 42 And so We propound these parables unto man: but none can grasp their innermost meaning save those who [of Us] are aware 43 God has created the heavens and the earth for a purpose; surely in this there is a sign for true believers. 44