Surah 21. Al-Anbiya, Ayah 95

Lit., "an inviolable law (haram) upon ...", expressing the impossibility of conceiving anything to the contrary (Zamakhshari).

I.e., whenever God consigns a community to destruction, He does it not because of its people's occasional lapses but only because of their irremediable, conscious unwillingness to forsake their sinful ways.

But when wickedness comes to such a pass that the Wrath of Allah descends, as it did on Sodom, the case becomes hopeless. The righteous were warned and delivered before the Wrath descended. But those destroyed will not get another chance, as they flouted all previous chances. They will only be raised at the approach of the Day of Judgment.