ثُمَّ أَرْسَلْنَا رُسُلَنَا تَتْرَا ۖ كُلَّ مَا جَآءَ أُمَّةً رَّسُولُهَا كَذَّبُوهُ ۚ فَأَتْبَعْنَا بَعْضَهُم بَعْضًا وَجَعَلْنَـٰهُمْ أَحَادِيثَ ۚ فَبُعْدًا لِّقَوْمٍ لَّا يُؤْمِنُونَ
Summa arsalnaa Rusulanaa tatraa kulla maa jaaa'a ummatar Rasooluhaa kazzabooh; fa atba'naa ba'dahum ba'danw wa ja'alnaahum ahaadees; fabu'dal liqawmil laa yu'minoon
Następnie wysłaliśmy Naszych posłańców, jednego po drugim. Za każdym razem, kiedy przychodził do jakiegoś narodu jego posłaniec, oni go uważali za kłamcę. I tak posyłaliśmy jednych za drugimi, i sprawiliśmy, iż przeszli do legend. Precz z ludem niewiernych!
Then we sent our messengers in succession. Every time a messenger came to a community, they denied him, so we made them follow one another, and we turned them into tales. Away with a people who will not believe!
The last word carries the sting: these communities became aḥādīth, the stuff of other people's conversation, remembered as an anecdote. Surah al-Muminun is moving through history at speed here, one people after another, which quietly places the reader somewhere in the same sequence. What a civilization is finally left with, when it turns away every messenger sent to it, is being talked about.