Waas-habu al-aykati waqawmu tubbaAAin kullun kaththaba arrusula fahaqqa waAAeed (surah Qaf: 14)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(50:14) and the people of Aykah, and the people of Tubba'. *14 *15 They all gave the lie to the Messengers. *16 Thereafter My threat of chastisement against them was fulfilled. *17

Wa Ashaabul Aykati wa qawmu Tubba`; kullun kazzabar Rusula fahaqqa wa`eed

*14) For explanation, see E.N. 37 of Surah Saba; E.N, 32 of Surah Dukhan.
*15) That is, they all denied the apostleship of their Messengers as well as the news given by them that they will be raised back to life after death.
*16) Although every nation denied only the Messenger who was sent to it, as it denied the news which all the Messengers have been presenting unanimously, denying one Messenger, therefore, amounted to denying all of them. Moreover, these nations did not merely deny the apostleship of the Messenger who had come to them, but they were not at all inclined to believe that a mere human could be appointed by Allah for the guidance of other men. Therefore, they denied apostleship itself, and .the crime of no one was confined to belying and rejecting any one Messenger only.
*17) This is a reasoning from history for the Hereafter. In the preceding six verses, arguments were given for the possibility of the Hereafter; in these the historical end of the nations of Arabia and the adjoining lands has been presented as an argument to prove that the doctrine of the Hereafter which all the Prophets have been presenting, is the very truth, for whichever nation denied it became involved in the moral degeneration of the worst kind with the result that the torment of God descended on it and eliminated it from the world. This necessary result of the denial of the Hereafter and moral perversion which one can witness throughout history, is an express proof of the fact that man has not been created to be irresponsible in this world, but he has necessarily to render an account of his deeds as soon as the time limit for action at his disposal comes to an end. That is why whenever he works in the world irresponsibly, his whole lift pattern is set on the path of ruin. If evil and wrong results go on following a course of action successively, it is a clear proof that that course of action is in conflict with the truth.