Request for Sign
Had We destroyed them before this, they would have said, “Our Lord, if only You had sent us a messenger, we would have followed Your signs before being humiliated and disgraced.”
20:134And if we had destroyed them with some punishment before it, they would assuredly have said: Our Lord! If only Thou hadst sent unto us a messenger, so that we might have followed Thy revelations before we were (thus) humbled and disgraced!