It was also said that he addressed them so that they might serve as a lesson for those who came after them.

It was also said that the verse involves an inversion in its order; its intended sense is: So he turned away from them and said, “O my people, I have certainly conveyed to you the message ⦗132/b⦘ of my Lord,” then the earthquake seized them.

According to what Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Wahb, and others related, the account of Thamud was as follows: When ‘Ad perished and their affair came to an end, Thamud settled the land after them. They were made successors in the earth; they inhabited it, multiplied, and built it up, until one of them would build a dwelling of mud brick, only for it to collapse while he was still alive. When they saw this, they carved homes out of the mountains. They lived in abundance, but then acted wickedly, spread corruption in the land, and worshipped other than Allah.

Allah therefore sent Salih to them. They were an Arab people, and Salih was among the most distinguished of them in lineage, the noblest in family standing, and the most eminent in rank. Allah sent him to them as a young man, and he continued calling them to Allah until his hair turned gray and he grew old, while only a small number of the oppressed among them followed him. When Salih persisted in calling and conveying the message to them, repeatedly warning and admonishing them, they asked him to show them a sign that would confirm what he said.

He said to them, “What sign do you want?” They replied, “Come out with us tomorrow to our festival.” They had an annual festival, on a known day of the year, when they would go out with their idols. “You call upon your god, and we shall call upon our gods. If your prayer is answered, we shall follow you; but if ours is answered, you shall follow us.” Salih said to them, “Yes.”

So they went out with their idols to their festival, and Salih went out with them. They invoked their idols and asked them that Salih not be answered in anything for which he prayed. Then Junda‘ ibn ‘Amr ibn Hawwas, who was the chief of Thamud at that time, said: “O Salih, bring forth for us from this rock”—a solitary rock in a part of al-Hijr called al-Kathibah—“a she-camel resembling the Bactrian breed, deep-bellied, hairy, and ten months pregnant”