Surah Fussilat, Ayah 18

A Warning to the Disbelievers and a Reminder of the Story of `Ad and Thamud

Allah says: `Say, O Muhammad, to these idolators who disbelieve in the message of truth that you have brought: If you turn away from that which I have brought to you from Allah, then I warn you of the punishment of Allah like the punishment that the past nations suffered for disbelieving in the Messengers.'

صَـعِقَةً مِّثْلَ صَـعِقَةِ عَادٍ وَثَمُودَ

(a Sa`iqah like the Sa`iqah which overtook `Ad and Thamud.) and other similar nations who did what they did,

إِذْ جَآءَتْهُمُ الرُّسُلُ مِن بَيْنِ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمِنْ خَلْفِهِمْ

(When the Messengers came to them, from before them and behind them) This is like the Ayah:

فَأَرْ‌سَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ رِ‌يحًا صَرْ‌صَرً‌ا (So, We let loose a wild wind on them - 41:16) This is the explanation of what was mentioned as ` calamity of ` Ad and Thamud' in the earlier verse. The Arabic word used in the text is sa` igah. It originally means ` something that renders one unconscious. That is why the thunderbolt is also called sa'iqah, and unforeseen calamity and disaster is also called sa` iqah. The storm which entrapped the people of ` Ad was also a 'sa'iqah', and has been mentioned in the present verse as ` wild wind' which was a wild tempest of extremely high speed and had piercing sound. (Qurtubi)

Man is living in a world where the vastness of heaven and earth negates the greatness of man; where the event of death proves that man is a non-entity and truly powerless. In spite of this, man poses as being great and harbours no doubts of his power. God, time and again, causes the Truth to be revealed and declared, thus disproving man’s claim to greatness. But man does not learn a lesson until he is destroyed. The ruins of the ‘Ad, Thamud and other communities are concrete examples of the results of human folly. The very days that these peoples considered auspicious became the very reverse at the behest of the Almighty. Here ‘inauspicious days’ means winter, for the Arabs called winter inauspicious.