Surah 26. Ash-Shuara, Ayah 128

The noun ayah, which primarily denotes "a sign" or "a token", evidently refers here to the ancient Semitic custom of worshipping the tribal gods on hilltops, which were crowned to this end by sacrificial altars or monuments, each of them devoted to a particular deity: hence my rendering of ayah, in this particular context, as "altars" (in the plural).

Any merely material civilisation prides itself on show and parade. Its votaries scatter monuments for all sorts of things in conspicuous places-monuments which commemorate deeds and events which are forgotten in a few generations! Cf. Shelley's poem on Ozymandias: "I am Ozymandias, King of Kings! Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair! .... Boundless and bare the lonely and level sands stretch far away!"