۞ 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 They said: Hast come to turn us away from our gods? Then bring upon us that wherewith thou threatenest us, if thou art of the 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 And so, when they beheld it in the shape of a dense cloud approaching their valleys, they exclaimed, "This is but a heavy cloud which will bring us [welcome] rain!" [But Hud said:] "Nay, but it is the very thing which you [so contemptuously] sought to hasten - a wind bearing grievous suffering, 24 Destroying everything by the command of its Lord, so they became such that naught could be seen except their dwellings. Thus do We reward the guilty people. 25 We had strengthened them as We have not strengthened you, had given them ears and eyes and hearts; but nothing stood them in good stead, neither their ears nor eyes nor hearts, for they rejected the signs of God, and were seized by what they had mocked. 26