Have We not destroyed the former peoples?

Have We not destroyed the former peoples, such as the people of Nuh, 'Ad, and Thamud? Qatadah read nahliku (We cause to perish) with a fatha on the nun, treating it as muhlikuhu (We cause his destruction) in the sense of ahlakahu (He destroyed him). From this is the word halik (perishing) meaning muhlik (causing to perish), as is apparent in the words of al-'Ajjaj:

"A vast desert that causes the one who traverses it to perish, Whose terrors are immense for the one who enters it."

[This is done] so that it does not necessitate the omission of the pronoun together with the preposition—meaning bihi (by it) or fihi (in it)—and to be consistent with what is in the second hemistich.