۞ And remember the brother of Ad, when he warned his people beside the sand-dunes -- and already warners had passed away alike before him and behind him -- saying, 'Serve none but God! Truly I fear for you the chastisement of a dreadful day. 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 deliver to you the message with which I am sent, but I see you are a people who are ignorant. 23 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: a wind, within it a painful punishment, 24 “That destroys all things by the command of its Lord” – so at morning none could be seen except their empty houses; this is the sort of punishment We mete out to the guilty. 25 And assuredly We had established them in that flourishing condition wherein We have not established you, and We had appointed for them hearing and sight and hearts; yet their hearing and sight and heart availed them not at all, they became wont to gainsay the revelations of Allah, and surrounded them that whereat they had been mocking. 26