30.Surah Ar-Rum

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

قُلْ سِيرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ فَانظُرُوا كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلُ...

30:42

"Travel through the earth and see what was the End of those before (you):

...كَانَ أَكْثَرُهُم مُّشْرِكِينَ ﴿٤٢﴾

most of them worshipped others besides Allah."

C3558. If you contemplate history and past experience (including spiritual experience), you will find that evil and corruption tended to destroy themselves, because they had false idols for worship, false standards of conduct, and false goals of desire.

Asad’s Version:

30:42 Say: "Go all over the earth, and behold what happened in the end to those [sinners] who lived before [you] : most of them were wont to ascribe divine qualities to things or beings other than God." 40

40 I.e., they worshipped material comfort and power, and thus lost sight of all spiritual values and, in the end, destroyed themselves.