Quran Universe
15:58

قَالُوٓاْ إِنَّآ أُرۡسِلۡنَآ إِلَىٰ قَوۡمٖ مُّجۡرِمِينَ

Qaloo inna orsilna ila qawmin mujrimeena

They said, "Indeed, we have been sent to a people of criminals,

Word by word
  1. قَالُوٓاْThey said
  2. إِنَّآIndeed,we
  3. أُرۡسِلۡنَآ[we] have been sent
  4. إِلَىٰto
  5. قَوۡمٖa people
  6. مُّجۡرِمِينَcriminals
Al-Hijr · 15:58Makkah

The same guests carried a warning elsewhere.

Sent to a people of criminals

The second mission
the angelsmessengers
sent to
a guilty peoplethe people of Lut
One visit, two outcomes
for Ibrahima son
for Lut's peoplea reckoning

The angels explained: we have been sent to a guilty people. Ibn Kathir says this meant the people of Lut. The same visitors who brought joy to one house were carrying justice to another town.

The same day brings a wedding invitation and a funeral notice in your family chat. The same news can be mercy for one and a test for another. The question is what your own conduct is inviting.

What happens to others has nothing to do with how I live.

The same decree brings mercy or justice depending on what people have done.

Try this

Look at one habit you have and ask whether it invites mercy or something else.

Simplified reflection. Read the tafsir for scholarship.draft
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (shared passage from 15:57)

He said: "What then is the business for which you have come, O messengers? (57)They said: "We have been sent to a guilty people. (58)"(All) except the family of Lut, all of whom we are to save (from the destruction). (59)"Except for his wife, of whom We have decreed that she shall be of those who remain behind. (60)

The Reason why the Angels came

Allah tells us that after Ibrahim had calmed down from the excitement of this good news, he started to ask them why they had come to him. They said,

إِنَّا أُرْسِلْنَا إِلَىٰ قَوْمٍ مُّجْرِمِينَ

(We have been sent to a guilty people.) meaning the people of Lut. They told him that they were going to save the family of Lut from among those people, except for his wife, because she was one of those who were doomed. Thus it was said,

إِلَّا امْرَأَتَهُ قَدَّرْنَا ۙ إِنَّهَا لَمِنَ الْغَابِرِينَ

(Except for his wife, of whom We have decreed that she shall be of those who remain behind.) i.e., she was one of those who would be left behind and will be destroyed.