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?