۞ Remember (Hud) the brother of 'Ad. When he warned his people in Ahqaf -- though many a warner had come and gone before and after him: "Do not worship any one but God, for I fear the punishment of an awful day for you," 21 but they said, "Have you come to us to turn us away from our deities? Then bring down upon us what you threaten us with, if you are truthful." 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 So when they saw it as a cloud advancing towards their valleys, they said: "This is just a passing cloud that will bring us rain." "No. It is what you were trying to hasten: The wind which carries the grievous 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 We had empowered them to an extent which We have not empowered you, [O people of later times]; and We had endowed them with hearing, and sight, and hearts: but neither their hearing, nor their sight, nor their hearts were of the least avail to them, since they went on rejecting God's revelations; and they were overwhelmed by the very thing which they had been wont to deride. 26