Overall meaning : Do not grieve, Muhammad, if the idolaters amongst your people disbelieve you. Remember that long before their time, the people of Noah, the tribes of ‘Aad and Thamud, the people of Abraham, the people of Lot and the dwellers of Midian also disbelieved and denied their messengers. Pharaoh and his people likewise disbelieved Moses. I granted a long respite to these unbelievers, but then I meted out My punishment to them. How terrible My condemnation and retribution was!
Numerous indeed were the towns which We had destroyed when their people wronged themselves by persisting in their unbelief. Their dwellings now lie in ruins, their wells abandoned and their lofty ornate palaces—that could not protect them against the dreadful scourge—deserted!