(18–22) “ʿĀd denied. How, then, were My punishment and warnings? We sent against them a furious wind on a day of unrelenting misery, tearing people away as though they were trunks of uprooted palm trees. How, then, were My punishment and warnings? We have certainly made the Quran easy for remembrance; is there anyone who will take heed?”

ʿĀd was the well-known tribe in Yemen. Allah sent Hūd, peace be upon him, to call them to affirm Allah’s oneness and worship Him, but they rejected him. Allah therefore sent against them “a furious wind”; that is, an exceedingly violent wind, “on a day of misery”; that is, a day of severe punishment and wretchedness for them, “unrelenting” upon them for seven nights and eight consecutive days.

“Tearing people away”: because of its violence, it lifted them high into the sky, then dashed them against the ground and destroyed them. They were left “as though they were trunks of uprooted palm trees”; that is, after their destruction, their bodies resembled the trunks of hollow palm trees that the wind had struck (1), causing them to fall to the ground. How insignificant creatures are before Allah when they disobey His command!

“How, then, were My punishment and warnings?” It was, [by Allah], a painful punishment and a warning that left no one with any argument against Him. “We have certainly made the Quran easy for remembrance; is there anyone who will take heed?” He, Exalted is He, repeated this out of mercy and care for His servants, calling them to that which would set right their worldly lives and their Hereafter.