And when the preservation of the traces of those who were destroyed is a greater proof of the power of the One who destroyed them, He said: "And We left behind" meaning: by virtue of Our greatness "in it" meaning: those towns by what We inflicted upon them of the punishment, the beginning of which was most fitting for the actions of the winds among the clouds. Indeed, We uprooted all their towns and they ascended in the air like clouds to the expanse of the sky, and none of their people felt anything of that. Then it was turned upside down and followed by stones, then it was swallowed up and submerged in water that does not resemble anything of the waters of the earth, just as their wickedness did not resemble the wickedness of anyone who preceded them among the people of the earth. "A sign" meaning: a great sign of Our power over what We will "for those who fear" as previously mentioned at the end of "Q" that they are the ones truly intended by the warning; for they are the ones who benefit from it, unlike those whose hearts are hardened and do not take heed. "The painful punishment" meaning: that it befall them as it befell those towns in this world from the raising of the angels for them in the swirling air to the expanse of the sky and their hearts, and their following of the burning stones, and their being overwhelmed by water suitable for their actions of filth and lack of benefit. And what has been stored for them in the Hereafter is greater.