An Admonitory Sign — Page 12
[ 12 ] has reached that stage where you will be seized by national calamities and repeated chastisements. If you do not desist and repent, and continue in arrogance like this, and do not refrain from ridiculing and deriding the holy men of God the Almighty, then this is only a small sample that has been shown to you. And in the future similar treatment for you by God is going to manifest. But when it begins to unfold there is no stopping. There is no hand that can stop it from moving. God’s retribution, once it starts to grind, cannot be stopped by anybody. These are all the signs or lessons that we find while reflecting on this incident. Terrible End of the Imprudent People We find the same theme in the verses that I have selected. Allah the Almighty says in the Holy Qur’an: 4 That is, O Muhammad sa , tell them to travel in the earth as much as they like. One thing they will observe with cer- tainty and it is that the wicked never had a good ending. Those people who are guilty of offenses and commit excesses and use cruelty, those whose lives are full of con- tradictions, who say one thing with their mouths and their 4. Say, ‘Travel in the earth and see how evil was the end of the sinful!’ ( al-Naml , 27:70)