129 – ʿAbd Allah narrated to us, and al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-ʿIjlī also narrated, saying: ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad related to us; he said: Asbāṭ ibn Naṣr transmitted from al-Suddi, who said:

“The people of ʿĀd were Yemenites who lived in al-Aḥqāf, the region of sand-dunes. Hūd came to them, called them to the truth, and reminded them of what Allah has recounted to you in the Quran, but they rejected him, disbelieved, and demanded that the punishment be brought down upon them. He answered, ‘Knowledge of that rests only with Allah.’ ⦗86⦘ When they persisted in disbelief, they were struck by a severe drought and suffered greatly. Hūd, peace be upon him, invoked Allah against them, whereupon Allah sent the barren wind that brings no fertilizing rain.

When they saw it they said, ‘This is but a cloud that will give us rain’ (Q 46:24). Yet as it drew near they watched their tents and camels lifted by the wind between heaven and earth. Seeing this, they rushed into their houses; but the wind burst in upon them and destroyed them inside, then flung them out of their dwellings and smote them ‘on a day of ill-omen, unceasing’ (Q 54:19). ‘Ill-omen’ (nahs) means misfortune, and ‘unceasing’ (mustamir) means that the punishment continued over them for seven nights and eight days without let-up (husuman). It cut off everything in its path.

‘So you would see the people lying therein, fallen’ (Q 69:7), ‘as though they were trunks of uprooted palm-trees’ (Q 54:20)—uprooted from their very roots.

After Allah had destroyed them and cast them out of their homes, He sent black birds that carried their bodies to the sea and dropped them there. Concerning this the Most High says: ‘Nothing could be seen of them save their dwellings’ (Q 46:25)."