qad makara alladhīna min qablihim fa-atā l-lahu bun'yānahum mina l-qawāʿidi fakharra ʿalayhimu l-saqfu min fawqihim wa-atāhumu l-ʿadhābu min ḥaythu lā yashʿurūna
Translation
Those before them had already plotted, but Allāh came at [i.e., uprooted] their building from the foundations, so the roof fell upon them from above them,696 and the punishment came to them from where they did not perceive.
Notes
[696] i.e., Allāh caused their plan to fail and exposed their plot.
Verse 26 of Surah An-Nahl (16:26), a Meccan surah, is in juz 14, on page 269 of the mushaf. Read it in Arabic with its transliteration, translations and tafsir, and listen to it recited by 73 reciters.
Listen to verse 26 of Surah An-Nahl
79 recitations by 73 reciters: pick one and it plays in the player.
All voices (79)
Tafsir of verse 26
Al-Mukhtasar
The disbelievers before these people devised plots against their Messengers. Allah then destroyed their buildings from the foundations and as a result their roofs fell on them from above. The punishment came to them from where they did not expect as they had expected their buildings to protect them but they were destroyed by them.
Those who came before them plotted, so Allah uprooted their buildings from their foundations and the roof fell down on top of them16, and the punishment came on them from where they could not imagine.
Notes
[16] i.e., Allah caused their plot to fail and exposed their plan.
Those before them indeed plotted, but Allâh struck at the foundation of their building, and then the roof fell down upon them, from above them, and the torment overtook them from directions they did not perceive.
Those before them plotted, so Allah struck at the foundations of their building, and then the roof fell down upon them from above them, and the doom came on them whence they knew not;
Those before them did also plot (against Allah's Way): but Allah took their structures from their foundations, and the roof fell down on them from above; and the Wrath seized them from directions they did not perceive.
Those before them did indeed devise plans, but Allah demolished their building from the foundations, so the roof fell down on them from above them, and the punishment came to them from whence they did not perceive.
The ones that were before them did already scheme; then Allah came upon their structure from the foundations, so the roof collapsed upon them from above them, and the torment came upon them from where they were not aware.
Then, do those who have planned evil deeds feel secure that Allāh will not cause the earth to swallow them or that the punishment will not come upon them from where they do not perceive?
And those before them had plotted, but to Allāh belongs the plan entirely. He knows what every soul earns, and the disbelievers will know for whom is the final home.
