“This is nothing but the customary way of the ancients.”

That is, these circumstances, blessings, and the like are simply the way things were for earlier peoples: sometimes they enjoyed prosperity and sometimes they fell into poverty. These are merely the vicissitudes of time, not trials and favors from Allah Almighty by which He tests His servants.

“And we will not be punished.” This was their denial of the resurrection. Alternatively, they were conceding the point for argument’s sake merely to mock their prophet: Even supposing that we are resurrected, just as blessings have poured abundantly upon us in this world, they will continue to do so after our resurrection.

“So they denied him.” Denial had become their ingrained disposition and character, and nothing could deter them from it. “So We destroyed them”—“with a furious, violent wind, which He unleashed upon them for seven nights and eight consecutive days; you would have seen the people lying there, struck down as though they were hollow trunks of palm trees.”

“Indeed, in that is surely a sign” of the truthfulness of our Prophet Hūd, peace be upon him, the soundness of what he brought, and the falsity of his people’s idolatry and tyranny. “Yet most of them were not believers,” ⦗596⦘ despite the presence of signs that should have led them to believe.

“And indeed, your Lord is surely the Almighty,” who, by His might, destroyed the people of Hūd despite their strength and violence;

“the Most Merciful” to His prophet Hūd, whom He saved together with the believers who were with him.