Tafseer of Hud · Hud · 11:117
And your Lord would not have destroyed the cities unjustly while their people were reformers.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the meaning of the words of Allah the Exalted: وَمَا كَانَ رَبُّكَ لِيُهْلِكَ الْقُرَى بِظُلْمٍ وَأَهْلُهَا مُصْلِحُونَ (And your Lord would not destroy the towns through wrongdoing while their people were acting righteously) (11:117)
Abū Jaʿfar said: Allah the Exalted says: And your Lord — O Muḥammad — would not destroy the towns, those towns which He destroyed and of which He has told you the account, through wrongdoing (bi-ẓulmin), while their people were acting righteously in their deeds and doing no evil — such that destroying them, while they were acting righteously in their deeds and obeying their Lord, would be a wrongdoing. Rather, He destroyed them because of the unbelief (kufr) of their people toward Allah, their persistence in their error, their denial of their messengers, and their committing of sins.
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It has also been said that the meaning of this is: He would not destroy them because of their associating partners with Allah (shirk). That is the meaning of His word "through wrongdoing" — that is to say: because of associating partners with Allah (shirk) — "(while their people were acting righteously)" in their dealings with one another, wherein they do each other no wrong but observe what is right among themselves, even though they are polytheists (mushrikīn). He destroys them only when they wrong one another.
