Ghafir (The Forgiver)

5. [Meccan disbelievers and also] the people of Noah and the Confederates after them denied [their Prophets] before these; and every nation plotted against their Messenger to seize him and disputed by means of falsehood to refute therewith the Truth. Therefore, I seized them [by My Wrath] and [behold] how My Chastisement was!

In their confrontations with Divinely appointed Prophets all disbelieving opponents shared the same goal but they were ignorant of Prophets’ Divine Support;

([behold] how My Chastisement was!).

The fate of a number of peoples of old who were astray and wrong doing are thus mentioned in terse but decisive clause:

“the people of Noah and the Confederates after them belied [their Prophets] before these.”

The word Confederate (ahzab) alludes to the peoples of ‘Ad, Thamud, Pharaoh, Lot, and the like alluded to in 38:12-13:

“Before them the people of Noah, ‘Ad, and Pharaoh the man of stakes, and Thamud and the people of Lot and the Dwellers of the Wood: such ere the confederates.”

The confederates cooperated with each other to belie the Divinely appointed Prophets whose Calls were inconsistent with the confederates’ illicit interests, lusts, and passions.

They were not content with these but:

“Every nation plotted against their Messenger to seize him.”

They even stepped further and resorted to falsehood to cast a veil over Truth and persisted in misleading people:

(“and disputed by means of falsehood to refute therewith the Truth”). The Arabic verbal form yudhidu derives from d-h-d (“disprove, refute, obliterate”). However, their stratagems did not last since God Almighty seized them in time and chastised them.

Behold Divine torment:

(“I seized them [by My Wrath] and [behold] how My Chastisement was!”).

The ruins of their cities are visible on your routes and their evil fate is recorded in historical books and the hearts of the pious. Behold and take lessons. These Meccan tyrant disbelievers and Arab wrong doing polytheists will not have a better fate in store for them unless they change their course and think twice about their beliefs and conducts.

The Verse in question presents a summary of the stratagems of the rebellious Confederates: belying, denial, conspiracy against men of Truth, making attempts to slay them, incessant propaganda for misleading the masses.

Arab polytheists resorted to the same stratagems against the Noble Prophet of Islam (S) hence there is no wonder that the Holy Qur’an warns them against entanglement with the fate of ancient people.