۞ And remember the fellowman of the tribe of A’ad; when he warned his nation in the Ahqaf* – and indeed Heralds of warning passed away before and after him – that, “Do not worship anyone except Allah; indeed I fear the punishment of a Great Day upon you. (* A country among sand dunes.) 21 They said: Have you come to us to turn us away from our gods; then bring us what you threaten us with, if you are of the truthful ones. 22 He said: the knowledge is only with Allah, and I preach unto you that wherewith I have been sent, but I see you are a people given to ignorance. 23 So, when they saw it in the shape of a dense cloud approaching their valleys, they exclaimed, "This is only a heavy cloud which will bring us [welcome] rain!" [But Hud said]: "By no means! It is the very thing which you sought to hasten -- a wind bearing grievous suffering 24 It will destroy everything at the bidding of its Lord." So in the morning there was nothing but their empty dwellings to be seen. That is how We requite the sinners. 25 And We had firmly established them in a (prosperity and) power which We have not given to you (ye Quraish!) and We had endowed them with (faculties of) hearing, seeing, heart and intellect: but of no profit to them were their (faculties of) hearing, sight, and heart and intellect, when they went on rejecting the Signs of Allah; and they were (completely) encircled by that which they used to mock at! 26