To Thamood We sent their brother Salih saying: 'Worship Allah' But they were two parties in dispute with one another. 45 He said: O my people! wherefore seek ye to hasten the evil before the good? Wherefore ask ye not forgiveness of Allah, that haply ye may be shewn mercy. 46 They said, "We see you and your followers as an evil omen." He replied, "No, your evil omen is with God; the truth is that you are a people being put to the test." 47 There were nine tribes in the city spreading evil without any reform in the land. 48 They said: Swear to each other by Allah that we will certainly make a sudden attack on him and his family by night, then we will say to his heir: We did not witness the destruction of his family, and we are most surely truthful. 49 Thus they planned and We too planned, the while they did not know. 50 Behold, then, what all their scheming came to in the end: We utterly destroyed them and their people, all of them; 51 Because of their wrongdoing, their houses are in ruins, in that surely there is a sign for people who have knowledge, 52 And We saved those who believed and practised righteousness. 53 (We also sent) Lut (as a messenger): behold, He said to his people, "Do ye do what is shameful though ye see (its iniquity)? 54 What! do you indeed approach men lustfully rather than women? Nay, you are a people who act ignorantly. 55 ۞ But the answer of his folk was naught save that they said: Expel the household of Lot from your township, for they (forsooth) are folk who would keep clean! 56 So We saved him and his family except his wife who was destined to stay behind. 57 And We rained upon them a rain [of stones], and evil was the rain of those who were warned. 58