Noah had four sons, Yam, Sam, Ham, and Yafth. Yam drowned in the flood after disobeying his father. The remaining three sons gave rise to various nations of the world. Erm was the son of Sam and the grandfather of Ad, whose generation was known as the people of Ad.
“Do ye wonder that there hath come to you a message from your Lord through a man of your own people, to warn you? Call in remembrance that He made you inheritors after the people of Noah, and gave you a stature tall among the nations. Call in remembrance the benefits ye have received from God that so ye may prosper.”
(S: 7, V: 69)
These people initially inhabited Yemen and then migrated towards Syria and Egypt and occupied the land of Ahqaf. This area lay in the north of Hazr Mout and in its east was Oman. Ahqaf in Arabic means sand dunes. This area, which was once green land, has now turned into a desert, and when the wind blows the sand shifts from one place to another and forms dunes.
This desert is about one thousand feet below the northern rugged terrain of Hazr Mout. This desert has many white patches, and anything dropped in that powdery sand sinks and disappears. Once a researcher dropped his pendulum in the sand, and within minutes, when he pulled it back, he could not retrieve it because the rope that held the pendulum had been eaten away in the sand.
The people of Ad, with their large physiques and muscular build, were stout and strong. God had given them physical strength and they were prosperous because of the fertile land. They were very good builders of buildings and monuments. They were experts in constructing colossal structures with pillars. The people of this generation, with over seventy tribes, were the founders of the most ancient civilization of the world and ruled a large area of southeast Arabia. When they captured Egypt, Shadad, the son of Ad, was their king.
“Did ye not see, how thy Lord dealt with the people of Ad, Eram, who built lofty buildings?”
(S: 89, V: 5-7)
Proud and Rebellious People
After the drowning of the people of Noah, these people were made rulers of the earth but they had not learned their lesson from the destruction of those before them and strayed from the right path, becoming idol worshippers. They had many gods named after the stars. The abundance of God’s favors misled them. Their hearts had hardened and their superstitions obstructed them from right thinking. Satan had made them oblivious of God, and they built various gods for themselves. They worshipped them for their different needs like health, sustenance, children, and rain. They had a separate god for each need. They also worshipped the gods of the people of Noah. They had fallen into such vices that life for weak and powerless people had become very difficult. And when the darkness of ignorance and transgression overpowered them, God sent Hud for their guidance.
“To Ad the people We sent Hud, one of their own brethren: He said: O my people! Worship God, ye have no other god but Him. Will ye not fear Him?”
(S: 7, V: 65)
Hud was blessed with prophetic abilities from childhood. He expressed aversion to idolatry, opposed the oppressors, and helped the oppressed. Humbleness and courtesy were his virtuous traits. He used to seek seclusion and go out of the town to ponder and deliberate upon the signs scattered in the universe. When his concentration developed and his consciousness gradually gained the ability of understanding the unseen, Gabriel visited him and told him that God had appointed him His Messenger.
Mention Hud, one of Ad’s own brethren: behold, he warned his people about the winding sand-tracts, but there had been warners before him and after him: “Worship ye none other than God. Truly I fear for you the penalty of a Mighty Day.”
(S: 46, V: 21)
God takes account
Hud said to the people: God, except whom no one is worthy of worship, has sent me to you so that I could lead you to the right path. So fear God and follow me. How could these idols, which you carve from wood and stone, be your rulers? How can the moon and the stars, which are duty-bound to follow the course appointed for them by God, govern your affairs? You have gone astray and been misled by Satan. You have no logical excuse for this infidelity. God has blessed you with physical and mental abilities, so be grateful to God. And if you do not quit arrogance and show-off, and do not express gratitude for His favors, then bear this in mind: He is strict in inflicting penalty.
The people of Hud, expressing their surprise, said, “Have you come to us to forbid worshipping those whom our fathers have been worshipping for ages?”
He said: “Punishment and wrath have already come upon you from your Lord. Do you dispute with me over names you and your fathers have devised, without authority from God? Then wait, I am amongst you, also waiting.”
(S: 7, V: 71)
The chiefs of his people refused to listen to him and said, “We think you are trying to mislead us by accusing our gods falsely and threatening us with penalties. We will not quit following the path of our ancestors. If you are true in your words, let us see the wrath of your God.”
Hud attempted to convince them by reasoning and said, “I am the prophet of God, appointed to deliver the message of God. I am your well-wisher and you can trust me. Why do you feel strange that God has appointed one of your own people? If you think that I want some sort of reward from you for myself, then that is not correct. I do not expect anything from you. My reward rests with Him who has created me.”
His people refused to listen to him and shunned him.
They said: “It is the same to us whether thou admonish us or not. This is nothing but a customary device of the ancients, and we are not the ones to receive pains and penalties.”
(S: 26, V: 136-138)
Hud invited them to think of the blessings of God bestowed upon them and said:
“Think of Him who gave you all that you wanted. He gave you cattle, children, orchards, farms, and springs of water. And you, instead of showing gratitude to Him, are joining partners with Him that have no power to do good or harm you. You spend all your energy and ability amassing wealth and constructing lofty structures with pillars just to show off, and you have made all this the purpose of your life. In spite of having all this, you do not have any peace of mind only because you consider this material world to be everything for you.”
When his people did not pay any heed to his teachings and continued misusing the favors of God, nature turned its face on them. The water table dropped, springs dried, wells dried up, and the green pastures turned into deserted fields. Famine raged for three years upon them.
Hud advised them to repent for their misdeeds and ask the forgiveness of the Lord God, for His mercy would prevail upon them.
“And O my people! Ask forgiveness of your Lord, and turn to Him in repentance: He will send you the skies pouring abundant rain, and add strength to your strength: so turn ye not back in sin!”
(S: 11, V: 52)
They said: “O Hud! No clear sign hast thou brought us, and we are not the ones to desert our gods on thy word! Nor shall we believe in thee!”
And his people transgressed beyond the limit; they refused to quit worshipping their false gods and rejected Hud. Hud knew that God had also abandoned them and they would not come to his terms, and now they would be punished. So he warned them and said, “I have fulfilled my duty by delivering His message to you, and you are still insisting upon your misconduct. Remember, my Lord has all the power to destroy you and replace you with other people.” But his people did not listen to him.
Final Warning:
The ’Ad people too rejected truth: then how terrible was My penalty and My warning! For We sent against them a furious wind, on a day of violent disaster, plucking out men as if they were roots of palm-trees torn up from the ground.
(S: 54, V: 18-20)
God’s wrath appeared before them in the form of dark clouds. When they saw those clouds, they rejoiced, thinking that it would rain and the land would once again become green as before. But it happened otherwise. The gusts of cold winds took the form of a ferocious tornado, which demolished all their lofty buildings and tore their structures as if they were made of paper, throwing them into the air like cotton balls.
The violent whirlwinds blew extinction upon the great palaces. Roofs of houses flew in the air; walls along with the foundations collapsed, and their debris was carried into the air by the gusts. Blustery winds erased all their signs. Whirlwinds picked up the bodies of those disobedient people into the air and struck them mercilessly onto the ground repeatedly, until their flesh left their bones. Painful agony filled them up to their bone marrow and they died a painful death. Their stout and strong bodies were crushed to pieces.
And the ’Ad, they were destroyed by a furious wind, exceedingly violent. He made it rage against them seven nights and eight days in succession, so that thou couldst see the whole people lying prostrate in its path, as if they had been roots of hollow palm-trees tumbled down! Then seest thou any of them left surviving?
(S: 69, V: 6-8)
And they were pursued by a curse in this life and on the Day of Judgment. Ah! Behold! For the ’Ad rejected their Lord and Cherisher! Ah! Behold! Removed from sight were ’Ad, the people of Hud!
(S: 11, V: 60)
To the ’Ad people, We sent Hud, one of their own brethren: He said: O my people! Worship God, ye have no other god but Him. Will ye not fear God?”
The leaders of the unbelievers among his people said, “Ah! We see thou art an imbecile!” and “We think thou art a liar!” He said, “O my people! I am no imbecile, but I am an apostle from the Lord and Cherisher of the worlds! I but fulfill towards you the duties of my Lord’s mission: I am to you a sincere and trustworthy adviser. Do ye wonder that there hath come to you a message from your Lord through a man of your own people, to warn you? Call in remembrance that He made you inheritors after the people of Noah, and gave you a stature tall among the nations. Call in remembrance the benefits ye have received from God that so ye may prosper.” They said, “Comest thou to us, that we may worship God alone, and give up the cult of our fathers? Bring us what thou threatenest us with, if so be that thou tell the truth!”
He said, “Punishment and wrath have already come upon you from your Lord. Do you dispute with me over names which ye and your fathers have devised without authority from God? Then wait: I am amongst you, also waiting.”
We saved him and those who adhered to him, by Our mercy, and We cut off the roots of those who rejected Our signs and did not believe.
(S: 7, V: 65-72)
To the ’Ad people We sent Hud, one of their own brethren. He said, “O my people! Worship God, ye have no other god but Him. Your other gods, ye do nothing but invent! O my people! I ask of you no reward for this message. My reward is from none but Him who created me. Will ye not then understand? And O my people! Ask forgiveness of your Lord, and turn to Him in repentance. He will send you the skies pouring abundant rain, and add strength to your strength. So turn ye not back in sin!”
They said, “O Hud! No clear sign hast thou brought us, and we are not the ones to desert our gods on thy word! Nor shall we believe in thee! We say nothing but that perhaps some of our gods may have seized thee with imbecility.” He said, “I call God to witness, and do ye bear witness, that I am free from the sin of ascribing to Him other gods as partners! So scheme your worst against me, all of you, and give me no respite. I put my trust in God, my Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving creature but He hath grasp of its forelock. Verily, it is my Lord that is on a straight path. If ye turn away, I at least have conveyed the message with which I was sent to you. My Lord will make another people succeed you, and you will not harm Him in the least. For my Lord hath care and watch over all things.”
So when Our decree issued, We saved Hud and those who believed with him, by special grace from Ourselves. We saved them from a severe penalty.
Such were the ’Ad people: they rejected the signs of their Lord and Cherisher, disobeyed His apostles, and followed the command of every powerful, obstinate transgressor. And they were pursued by a curse in this life and on the Day of Judgment. Ah! Behold! For the ’Ad rejected their Lord and Cherisher! Ah! Behold! Removed from sight were ’Ad, the people of Hud!
(S: 11, V: 50-60)
Believing the Hereafter:
And We sent to them an apostle from among themselves saying, “Worship God, ye have no other god but Him. Will ye not fear Him?” And the chiefs of his people, who disbelieved and denied the Meeting in the Hereafter, and on whom We had bestowed the good things of this life, said, “He is no more than a man like yourselves, he eats of that of which ye eat, and drinks of what ye drink. If ye obey a man like yourselves, behold, it is certain ye will be lost. Does he promise that when ye die and become dust and bones, ye shall be brought forth again? Far, very far is that which ye are promised! There is nothing but our life in this world! We shall die and we live! But we shall never be raised up again! He is only a man who invents a lie against God, but we are not the ones to believe in him!”
The prophet said, “O my Lord! Help me, for they accuse me of falsehood.”
God said, “In but a little while, they are sure to be sorry!” Then the Blast overtook them with justice, and We made them as rubbish of dead leaves floating on the stream of Time! So away with the people who do wrong!
(S: 23, V: 32-41)
Grip of cruelty:
Behold, their brother Hud said to them, “Will ye not fear God? I am to you an apostle worthy of all trust. So fear God and obey me. No reward do I ask of you for it: my reward is only from the Lord of the Worlds. Do ye build a landmark on every high place to amuse yourselves? And do ye get for yourselves fine buildings in the hope of living therein forever? And, when ye exert your strong hand, do ye do it like men of absolute power? Now fear God, and obey me. Yea, fear Him who has bestowed on you freely all that ye know. Freely has He bestowed on you cattle and sons, and gardens and springs. Truly I fear for you the penalty of a Great Day.”
They said, “It is the same to us whether thou admonish us or be not among our admonishers! This is no other than a customary device of the ancients, and we are not the ones to receive pains and penalties!”
So they rejected him, and We destroyed them. Verily in this is a Sign: but most of them do not believe. And verily thy Lord is He, the Exalted in Might, Most Merciful.
(S: 26, V: 124-141)
Mention Hud, one of ‘Ad’s own brethren: behold, he warned his people about the winding sand-tracts, but there had been warners before him and after him. “Worship ye none other than God. Truly I fear for you the penalty of a Mighty Day.”
They said, “Hast thou come in order to turn us aside from our gods? Then bring upon us the calamity with which thou dost threaten us, if thou art telling the truth.”
He said, “The knowledge of when it will come is only with God. I proclaim to you the mission on which I have been sent. But I see that ye are a people in ignorance.”
Then, when they saw the penalty in the shape of a cloud traversing the sky, coming to meet their valleys, they said, “This cloud will give us rain.”
“Nay, it is the Calamity ye were asking to be hastened: a wind wherein is a grievous penalty. Everything will it destroy by the command of its Lord!” Then by the morning nothing was to be seen but the ruins of their houses. Thus do We recompense those given to sin. And We had firmly established them in a prosperity and power which We have not given to you, and We had endowed them with faculties of hearing, sight, heart, and intellect: but of no profit to them were their faculties of hearing, sight, heart, and intellect, when they went on rejecting the Signs of God, and they were completely encircled by that which they used to mock at.
(S: 46, V: 21-26)
And in the ’Ad people was another Sign: behold, We sent against them the devastating wind. It left nothing whatever that it came up against, but reduced it to ruin and rottenness.
(S: 51, V: 41-42)
The ’Ad people too rejected Truth: then how terrible was My penalty and My warning! For We sent against them a furious wind, on a day of violent disaster, plucking out men as if they were roots of palm-trees torn up from the ground. Yea, how terrible was My penalty and My warning!
(S: 54, V: 18-21)
And the ’Ad, they were destroyed by a furious wind, exceedingly violent. He made it rage against them seven nights and eight days in succession, so that thou couldst see the whole people lying prostrate in its path, as if they had been roots of hollow palm trees tumbled down. Then seest thou any of them left surviving?
(S: 69, V: 6-8)
Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with the ’Ad people of the city of Eram, with lofty pillars, the like of which were not produced in all the land?
(S: 89, V: 6-8)
Shadad’s Paradise:
Shadad had built his paradise in Hud’s times. Tremendous military power, expansion of the empire, and abundance of resources went to Shadad’s head and made him haughty. He had a throne on whose both sides two vultures spreading their wings were erected. His throne was embedded with precious stones and metals.
When the news of Hud’s preaching reached him, he summoned Hud to his court and asked him in front of his courtiers that if he would embrace the belief Hud was talking about, how would it benefit him? Hud said, “Your sins would be blotted out and God will grant you Paradise where you would enjoy His blessings.”
“How does the Paradise that you are talking about look?” he wanted to know.
When Hud described the Paradise and gave him the details of its blissful atmosphere, he said, “Well, we can build this Paradise with which you are tempting us, for ourselves now and here. Then why should we go after the one which is not certain? I do not require the Paradise of your Lord.”
And to prove what he had said, he ordered the construction of a grand garden with those things in it which he had heard from Hud about Paradise, using the resources that God had given him.
It is said that the garden was built between Sanaa and Hazr Mom and was spread over an area equal to a large city, which had grand buildings, canals, gardens, springs, and fountains. He named it Bram. When that ‘paradise’ was completed, Shadad came to see it with all his courtiers, chiefs, and captains. At that time the sky clouded and the inflicted calamity killed them all before they could enter that paradise.
According to one of the legends, Shadad prayed to God, “You know I am not a god and it only befits Thou to be God, but I have claimed to be a god. You have blessed me with everything, I beseech Thee to accede to my submission and give me death in the way I suggest.” And he suggested that he should die when he was not standing, not sitting, not riding, not under a roof, not when he was on the earth, not when he was lying… in short he mentioned every possible situation in which one can die. God acceded to his request. When he was about to enter the paradise that he had built, the horse on which he was riding halted and refused to enter the paradise. When every effort to control the horse failed, his courtiers suggested that he get down from the steed. When he was descending, one foot was in the stirrup and the other was in the hands of his servant, and the Angel of Death seized his soul.
After taking away his soul, the Angel of Death submitted to God, “Lord, what if Thou had given Shadad only this much respite that he had looked at his paradise just once?”
God asked the Angel of Death, “Do you know who he was? Look towards the earth!”
He saw that the pirates were slaying people of a ship, when God had told him to put an infant on a wooden board and leave it in the ocean. Then God said, “This was the child that grew up to claim to be a god and built this paradise. We protected him, provided him resources, made him a king, and he, instead of expressing his gratitude, claimed to be a god!”
We do not have authority about the truth of this legend but it does hint at God’s grace. How did an infant survive on a wooden board in the middle of an ocean? How did he grow up? How did he manage to become a king and raise an army of men?
A helpless child whom God saved from every peril of the ocean and land, and gave the strength and wisdom to become a king, claimed to be a god, and while remaining within the kingdom of God, rebelled against Him and earned himself punishment.
Twister Tornado:
Twister Tornado is a huge whirlwind or a cyclone in which winds circulate at a speed of three hundred miles per hour and it moves with a speed of up to fifty miles per hour. This is such a powerful storm that it blows away the tops of houses and buildings. It is so powerful that it can even rip away the structures of concrete. Anything coming in its way is flown into the air and is thrown miles away. Large animals like buffaloes, cows, camels, and elephants can be seen flying in a tornado. Pebbles and stones circulating in a tornado with the winds are the cause of destruction for anything hit by them. Usually rains follow these stormy whirlwinds that convert the dust into mud. Sometimes they accompany thunder and lightning.
The force of lightning in a tornado is so severe and intense that anything hit by it is smashed and crumbles to ashes. It has been estimated that in a tornado this lightning flashes fifty to a hundred times in an hour. Most of the flashes occur within the clouds and last a few seconds. Larger flashes last up to eight seconds and their thickness is the size of a finger with miles of length. An average tornado is as powerful as ten atomic bombs and it contains so much electricity that it could meet the needs of one year.
One lightning flash in a tornado has a current of three thousand amperes and its flow creates heat of sixty thousand Fahrenheit degrees. With such tremendous temperature the speed of circulating winds becomes supersonic. On one side of the area where the people of Ad inhabited, adjoining Yemen and Hazr Moul, and on its back side the desert of Raba al Zalli, European researchers found many meteors in this area. It is thought that it was winter when the punishment of God was inflicted upon them. And a large meteor with many small ones hit the earth near the habitation of Ad, which initially created an earthquake. Clouds of dust rose, and people sleeping in their homes rushed out in the open after feeling the tremors of the quake.
Meteor:
When meteors enter the atmosphere of the earth, their speed under the gravitational pull of the earth increases, and the friction resulting from their contact with air heats them up and they start burning. Smaller meteors burn to ashes in the air but the larger ones hit the ground with a bang while still burning. This collision produces tremors like an earthquake. These meteors may take many days to cool off according to their size and mass. When, because of the heat of the burning meteor, the air around it becomes hot and rises above, the atmospheric pressure in that area suddenly drops due to the vacuum so produced, and air from all sides rushes to fill the gap.
Since in the case of the Ad people it had happened in the winter, therefore the winds thus generated were cold. A meteor normally takes a week to cool off; therefore the winds there blew for seven days and eight nights. The people of Ad were physically large, stout, and strong, but the ferocious wind killed them in the air and smashed them into the ground, and their bones scattered all over the area.
Then the Blast took over them with justice, and We made them rubbish of dead floating on the stream of Time! So away with the people who do wrong!
(S: 23, V: 41)
When we contemplate upon the attributes of God like wisdom, prudence, grace, power, authority, and mercy, they become a source of insight and vision. God Almighty is the Creator and Lord of the entire universe. He has established the system of life and death in such a manner that from the tiniest particle to the largest celestial body nothing can escape His control. Every existence and creature is dependent on Him. He creates and provides resources to survive.
From the very first day of one’s creation in the womb of the mother till birth, and after birth in infancy, childhood, youth, old age, till death, it is He who bestows life, protects it, ignores one’s flaws and weaknesses, and forgives sins. But first He offers a chance to correct them and sends His messengers with glad tidings if they would do well. But when they exceed the limit in their transgression and do not refrain from infidelity and joining partners with Him, He issues warnings of painful consequence through His messengers. And if even then they reject belief, He enforces His word, and it is not difficult for Him to erase and blot out any number of people if they refuse to adjust themselves in His system.