۞ 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 'Have you come to turn us away from our gods (they replied)? If what you say is true then bring down that which you promise us' 22 'Allah alone has the knowledge' he said, 'I am sent to deliver to you the Message. But I can see that you are ignorant people' 23 Then when they beheld it as an overpeering cloud tending toward their valleys they said: yonder is an overpeering cloud bringing us rain. Nay it is that which ye sought to be hastened: a wind wherein is a torment afflictive. 24 Destroying all things by commandment of its Lord. And morning found them so that naught could be seen save their dwellings. Thus do We reward the guilty folk. 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