After Nuh a powerful people arose: 'Ad. Allah had given them strength of body, herds, children, gardens and springs. They built monuments on every high place and great strongholds, as though they would live for ever.
Allah sent one of them, Hud, peace be upon him, as a prophet. He said: my people, worship Allah; you have no god but Him. And he said:
But they said in their pride: who is stronger than us? They forgot that Allah, who created them, is far stronger. They told Hud he had brought no clear proof and that they would not leave their gods on his word.
The cloud that brought no rain
One day they saw a vast cloud moving towards their valleys. Glad, they said: this cloud will bring us rain. But it was the punishment they had asked to be hurried — a furious, freezing wind.
The Quran tells us it blew against them for seven nights and eight days without pause, and afterwards they lay like the hollow trunks of palm trees. Nothing could be seen but their dwellings.
And Allah, by His mercy, saved Hud and those who believed with him.