When Our Messengers came to Abraham with the good news, they said: "We are indeed going to destroy the people of this township: for truly they are (addicted to) crime." 31 [And when Abraham] exclaimed, "But Lot lives there!" - they answered: We know fully well who is there; most certainly we shall save him and his household - all but his wife: she will indeed be among those that stay behind." 32 When that Our messengers came to Lot he was troubled on their account and distressed for them; but they said, 'Fear not, neither sorrow, for surely we shall deliver thee and thy family, except thy wife; she has become of those that tarry. 33 Verily, we are about to bring down on the people of this town a great torment from the sky, because they have been rebellious (against Allah's Command)." 34 And We have undoubtedly kept a part of it as a clear sign for people of intellect. 35 And to Midian their brother Shu'aib. He said: 'Worship Allah, my nation. Look to the Last Day. Do not make mischief in the land, doing corrupt works. 36 But they denounced him as a liar. So a mighty earthquake overtook them, and by the morning they lay overturned in their houses. 37 And [We destroyed] 'Aad and Thamud, and it has become clear to you from their [ruined] dwellings. And Satan had made pleasing to them their deeds and averted them from the path, and they were endowed with perception. 38 And [thus, too, did We deal with] Qarun and Pharaoh, and Haman: to them had come Moses with all evidence of the truth, but they behaved arrogantly on earth [and rejected him]; and withal, they could not escape [Us]. 39 So We took each one in his sin; of them was he on whom We sent a hurricane, and of them was he who was overtaken by the (Awful) Cry, and of them was he whom We caused the earth to swallow, and of them was he whom We drowned. It was not for Allah to wrong them, but they wronged themselves. 40 The likeness of those who take other patrons than Allah is as the likeness of the spider who taketh unto herself a house. And verily the frailest of all houses is the spider's house - if they but knew! 41 Verily Allah knoweth whatsoever thing they invoke beside Him. And He is the Mighty, the Wise. 42 These are parables which We tell to human being, but only the learned ones understand them. 43 Allah created the heavens and the earth in truth. Indeed in that is a sign for the believers. 44