Surah 32. As-Sajdah, Ayah 26

For the wider meaning of the term qarn (lit., "generation"), see note [111] on 20:128 .

If a nation gone astray could only learn from the history of earlier nations that were destroyed for their evil! Their could sec vestiges of them in their daily goings to and fro: the Jews could see vestiges of the Philistines, Amalekites, etc. in Palestine, and the pagan Arabs, of the 'Ad and Thamud in Arabia.

"Listen": i.e., listen to the warnings conveyed in Allah's Signs. Notice how naturally the transition is effected from the physical to the spiritual-from the ruined physical vestiges of ungodly nations on this earth to the more intangible Signs conveyed by History and Revelation. Here the sense of Hearing is mentioned, both in its physical and its metaphysical or spiritual aspect. In the next verse the sense of Sight is mentioned in both aspects.