Qur'an 20080414

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

21. Mention one of 'Ad's brethren: behold, he warned his people about the winding sand-tracts. But there have warners before him, and after him: "Worship you none other than Allah; truly I fear for you the Penalty of a Mighty Day."

22. They said, "Hast thou come to turn us aside from our gods? Then bring upon us that with which thou dost threaten us, if thou art telling the truth!"

23. He said, "The knowledge is only with Allah. I proclaim to you the mission with which I have been sent, but I see that you are a people in ignorance!"

24. Then when they saw it, a cloud traversing the sky, coming to meet their valleys, they said, "This cloud will bring us rain!" Nay, it is what you were asking to be hastened: a wind wherein is a Grievous Penalty!

25. Everything will it destroy by the command of its Lord! Then by the morning they... nothing was to be seen but their houses! Thus do We recompense those given to sin!

26. And We had firmly established them in a power which We have not given to you, and We had endowed them with hearing, seeing, heart and intellect: but of no profit to them were their hearing, seeing, heart and intellect when they went on rejecting the Signs of Allah. And they were encircled by that which they used to mock at!

Winding sand-tracts 46:21-26
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Many people guess that the 'Ad people flourished some time between Sodom and Gomorrah, and the people of Moses, in the vicinity of the Arabian peninsula. The prophet who was assigned to their case was the prophet Hud. Apparently, he saw evidence of climactic change in the waveforms carved out by the wind in the desert sand. The 'Ad were polytheists, so the prophet Hud warned them that God was ready to give them reckoning for their bad faith.

Just like everyone else, the 'Ad told the prophet Hud to "bring it on". The 'Ad were wiped out by a hurricane. None of the skills and powers that they had did them any good, because they thought it more important to reject God. Sad to say, verse 21 states that this is a general human trait, and the 'Ad was one of many populations to be wiped out for the same reason.