He said, “Knowledge of this is only with Allah. I convey to you that with which I have been sent, but I see that you are a people who act ignorantly.” (23)

When they saw it as a cloud approaching their valleys, they said, “This is a cloud that will bring us rain.” Rather, it was what you had sought to hasten: a wind containing a painful punishment, (24) destroying everything by the command of its Lord. By morning, nothing could be seen except their dwellings. Thus do We repay the criminal people. (25)

Hud said, “Knowledge is only with Allah”: He knows when the punishment will come to you. “I convey to you that with which I have been sent,” namely, the revelation; “but I see that you are a people who act ignorantly.”

“When they saw it,” that is, the punishment which they had been promised, “as a cloud”: a cloud that appears in one part of the sky and then covers the entire sky, “approaching their valleys.” A black cloud came upon them from one of their valleys, called al-Mughith. Rain had been withheld from them, so when they saw it, they rejoiced. They said, “This is a cloud that will bring us rain.” Allah, exalted is He, says: “Rather, it is what you had sought to hasten: a wind containing a painful punishment.” The wind began carrying away tents and women in their camel-litters, until a woman could be seen as though she were a locust.

“Destroying everything” of the men and possessions of ‘Ad that it passed over, “[by the command of its Lord]” (1). The first indication they had that it was a punishment was when they saw the men and livestock that had been outside their dwellings being carried by the wind between heaven and earth. They then entered their houses and shut their doors, but the wind came and tore off their doors and struck them down. Allah commanded the wind, and it heaped the sand over them. They remained beneath the sand for seven nights and eight days, moaning. Then Allah commanded the wind, and it uncovered the sand from them, carried them away, and cast them into the sea.

The Imam Abu ‘Ali al-Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Qadi reported to us; Abu Nu‘aym ‘Abd al-Malik ibn al-Hasan al-Isfarayini reported to us; Abu ‘Awanah Ya‘qub ibn Ishaq, the hadith master, reported to us; Yunus reported to us; Ibn Wahb reported to us; ‘Amr ibn al-Harith reported to us; al-Nadr narrated from Sulayman ibn Yasar, from Aishah, who said: “I never saw Allah’s Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, laugh wholeheartedly such that I could see the whiteness of his palate. Whenever he saw a cloud or wind, it was evident on his face. I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, when people see clouds they rejoice, hoping that they will bring rain; but when you see them, displeasure is evident on your face.’ He said, ‘O Aishah, what assurance do I have that it may not contain a punishment? A people were punished by the wind, and a people saw the punishment and said, “This is a cloud that will bring us rain,”’” to the end of the verse. (2)

“By morning, nothing could be seen except their dwellings.” ‘Asim, Hamzah, and Ya‘qub recited it as “nothing could be seen,” with the yā’ vowelled with ḍammah, and “their dwellings” in the nominative case—meaning that nothing could be seen except their dwellings. The others recited it with the feminine prefix vowelled with fatḥah, “their dwellings,” in the accusative case