But if you turn away, then I have already conveyed that with which I was sent to you. My Lord will give succession to a people other than you, and you will not harm Him at all. Indeed my Lord is, over all things, Guardian."
(My Lord will make another people succeed you, ) This refers to a group of people who will worship Allah alone, without associating anything with Him. This also implies that the polytheists do not bother Allah and they do not harm Him in the least with their disbelief. To the contrary, their disbelief merely harms their own selves.
إِنَّ رَبِّى عَلَى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ حَفِيظٌ
(Surely, my Lord is Guardian over all things.) This means that Allah is a Witness and Guardian over the statements of His servants and their actions. He will give them due recompense for their actions. If they do good deeds, He will reward them with good. If they do evil, He will punish them with evil.
The Destruction of the People of `Ad and the Salvation of Those among Them Who believed
وَلَمَّا جَآءَ أَمْرُنَا
(And when Our commandment came,) This is referring to the barren wind with which Allah destroyed them, to the very last of them. The mercy and kindness of Allah, the Exalted saved Hud and his followers from this terrible punishment.
فوَتِلْكَ عَادٌ جَحَدُواْ بِآيَـتِ رَبِّهِمْ
g(Such were `Ad (people). They rejected the Ayat of their Lord) This means they disbelieved in the proofs and revelations (of Allah) and they disobeyed the Messengers of Allah ﷺ. This is due to the fact that whoever disbelieves in a Prophet, then verily, he has disbelieved in all of the Prophets, peace be upon them. There is no difference between any one of them, in the sense that it is necessary to believe in all of them. Therefore, `Ad disbelieved in Hud and their disbelief was considered disbelief in all of the Messengers.
وَاتَّبَعُواْ أَمْرَ كُلِّ جَبَّارٍ عَنِيدٍ
(and followed the command of every proud, obstinate.) This means that they abandoned following their rightly guided Messenger and they followed the command of every proud, obstinate person. Thus, they were followed in this life by a curse from Allah and His believing servants whenever they are mentioned. On the Day of Resurrection a call will be made against them in front of witnesses.
أَلا إِنَّ عَادًا كَفَرُواْ رَبَّهُمْ
(Verily, `Ad disbelieved in their Lord.)
Ma'arif al-Qur'an
Mufti Muhammad ShafiOn ayahs 52–61
After that, the next eight verses (61-68) carry the story of Sayyidna Salih peace be upon him. He was sent to the people of Thamud, another branch of the tribe of ` Ad. He too invited his people to believe in Tauhid, the Oneness of Allah. As customary, his people belied him and insisted that he must first make a she-camel of a specified description come out from the rock of the mountain in front of them in order to have them believe that he was a true prophet of Allah.
Sayyidna Salih (علیہ السلام) warned them: If Allah Ta` ala shows you your custom-ordered miracles, and you still fail to believe, then, according to the customary practice of Allah, the punishment will come and destroy all of you. But, they remained obstinate and Allah Ta` a1a, in His perfect power, made the miracle they demanded manifest before them. The rock of the mountain in front of them split asunder. Out from it came the she-camel bearing the features specified by them. Allah Ta` ala ordered them not to harm that she-camel in any manner, otherwise the punishment will come upon them. But, they disobeyed this order as well, and killed the she-camel. Consequently, they were seized by Allah Ta` ala, Sayyidna Salih (علیہ السلام) and his companions were saved from the punishment, and the rest of those people were destroyed by a Sound which was severe and terrifying.
Tazkirul Quran
Maulana Wahiduddin KhanOn ayahs 56–59
The communities into which God’s prophets had come were all believers in God. In other words, the missionary projected himself as a God-worshipper, while his addressees also made the same claim. So the question arises: in which group is God present? The simple answer to this question is that God is on a straight highway (as-sirat al-mustaqim). So, the religion which is going on the straight path will directly reach God and that which is going on crooked paths will be diverted on to by-paths and can never be successful in reaching God. When Hud said, ‘My Lord is on the straight path,’ he was saying in other words that the path towards which he was calling them was ‘the highway of religion.’ But his people, in the name of religion, had adopted by-ways around the highway of religion and were running headlong along them. Such a headlong course does not take a man towards God; it takes him here and there and leaves him astray. In the light of these verses, the straight path shown by Hud comprises the following: belief in the unity of God, worship of God, seeking God’s pardon, repentance, turning towards God (tawbah), gratitude for God’s grace, placing trust in God, treating God as our Sustainer, treating God as the only possessor of all power, accepting God’s watchfulness over oneself, and remaining humble. All these are the basic teachings of religion. Following these teachings and making them the centre of one’s attention amounts to treading the highway of religion. One who treads this path straightaway reaches God. On the contrary, if a man gives importance to other things, it is as if he is taking the side paths to the right or the left of the highway and hastening along them. Such a course takes a man away from God, not closer to God.
