۞ وَٱذْكُرْأَخَاعَادٍإِذْأَنذَرَقَوْمَهُۥبِٱلْأَحْقَافِوَقَدْخَلَتِٱلنُّذُرُمِنۢبَيْنِيَدَيْهِوَمِنْخَلْفِهِۦٓأَلَّاتَعْبُدُوٓا۟إِلَّاٱللَّهَإِنِّىٓأَخَافُعَلَيْكُمْعَذَابَيَوْمٍعَظِيمٍۢ٢١

And mention, [O Muḥammad], the brother of ʿAad,¹ when he warned his people in [the region of] al-Aḥqāf - and warners had already passed on before him and after him - [saying], "Do not worship except Allāh. Indeed, I fear for you the punishment of a terrible day."²

They said, "Have you come to delude us away from our gods? Then bring us what you promise us, if you should be of the truthful."

He said, "Knowledge [of its time] is only with Allāh, and I convey to you that with which I was sent; but I see you [to be] a people behaving ignorantly."

And when they saw it as a cloud approaching their valleys, they said, "This is a cloud bringing us rain!" Rather, it is that for which you were impatient:¹ a wind, within it a painful punishment,

Destroying everything by command of its Lord. And they became so that nothing was seen [of them] except their dwellings. Thus do We recompense the criminal people.

And We had certainly established them in such as We have not established you, and We made for them hearing and vision and hearts [i.e., intellect]. But their hearing and vision and hearts availed them not from anything [of the punishment] when they were [continually] rejecting the signs of Allāh; and they were enveloped by what they used to ridicule.

And We have already destroyed what surrounds you of [those] cities, and We have diversified the signs [or verses] that perhaps they might return [from disbelief].

Then why did those they took besides Allāh as deities by which to approach [Him]¹ not aid them? But they had strayed [i.e., departed] from them. And that was their falsehood and what they were inventing.