﴿ وَمَآ أَرْسَلْنَا مِن قَبْلِكَ إِلَّا رِجَالًۭا نُّوحِىٓ إِلَيْهِم مِّنْ أَهْلِ ٱلْقُرَىٰٓ ۗ أَفَلَمْ يَسِيرُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ فَيَنظُرُوا۟ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَٰقِبَةُ ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ ۗ وَلَدَارُ ٱلْءَاخِرَةِ خَيْرٌۭ لِّلَّذِينَ ٱتَّقَوْا۟ ۗ أَفَلَا تَعْقِلُونَ ﴾

“And [even] before thy time, We never sent [as Our apostles] any but [mortal] men, whom We inspired, [and whom We always chose] from among the people of the [very] communities [to whom the message was to be brought]. Have, then, they [who reject this divine writ] never journeyed about the earth and beheld what happened in the end to those [deniers of the truth] who lived before them?-and [do they not know that] to those who are conscious of God the life in the hereafter is indeed better [than this world]? Will they not, then, use their reason?”

And We did not send before you any messengers save men inspired by revelation yūhā ilayhim a variant reading has nūhī ilayhim ‘to whom We revealed’ — and not angels — from among the people of the towns the principal towns since they are more knowledgeable and wiser than the people of the desert who are crude and ignorant. Have they the people of Mecca not travelled in the land and seen the nature of the consequence for those who were before them? that is how they ended up when they were destroyed for denying their messengers? And verily the abode of the Hereafter that is Paradise is better for those who are wary of God. Will they not understand? read a-fa-lā ya‘qilūn or a-fa-lā ta‘qilūn. ‘Will you not understand?’ this O people of Mecca and so have faith?