(15–16) “As for Ād, they behaved arrogantly throughout the land without any right and said, ‘Who is mightier than us?’ Did they not realize that Allah, who created them, is mightier than they? Yet they continued to reject Our signs. * So We sent against them a furious wind during ill-fated days, so that We might make them taste the punishment of disgrace in this worldly life. But the punishment of the Hereafter is far more disgraceful, and they will not be helped.”

This provides the details of the story of these two nations, Ād and Thamūd. “As for Ād,” despite their disbelief in Allah, their rejection of Allah’s signs, and their disbelief in His messengers, they behaved arrogantly throughout the land. They subjugated and wronged the people around them, being greatly impressed by their own strength. “They said, ‘Who is mightier than us?’” In refutation, Allah replied with something everyone knows: “Did they not realize that Allah, who created them, is mightier than they?” Had He not created them, they would not have existed. Had they reflected properly on this reality, they would not have been deluded by their strength. Allah therefore punished them with a punishment commensurate with the strength that had so deluded them.

“So We sent against them a furious wind”—that is, a tremendous wind which, due to its power and ferocity, made a terrifying sound like deafening thunder. Allah subjected it to them for “seven nights and eight uninterrupted days, so you would have seen the people lying fallen therein as though they were hollow trunks of palm trees”—days that were “ill-fated.” It devastated and destroyed them, until nothing could be seen except their dwellings. Here He says, “So that We might make them taste the punishment of disgrace in this worldly life,” which left them humiliated and exposed before all creation. “But the punishment of the Hereafter is far more disgraceful, and they will not be helped”—that is, no one will shield them from Allah’s punishment, nor will they be able to benefit themselves.