۞ And remember thou the brother of the Aad when We warned his people in the sandhills - and surely there have passed away warners before him and after him - saying: worship none save Allah, verily I fear for you the torment of a mighty Day. 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 When they saw the scourge advancing towards their valleys, they said: “This is a cloud that will bring much rain to us.” “By no means; it is what you had sought to hasten -- a wind-storm bearing a grievous chastisement 24 which will destroy everything at its Lord's behest!" And in the morning there was nothing left to be seen save their [empty] dwellings: thus We repay the evil-doers. 25 We had established them firmly in a manner We have not established you. We had given them ears and eyes and hearts. But nothing availed them -- neither their ears, nor their eyes, nor their hearts, for they denied the Signs of Allah. Then what they had mocked at encompassed them. 26