﴿It destroys﴾ meaning: it annihilates with a great, severe, rapid destruction, coming suddenly by the way of attack. ﴿Everything﴾ meaning: [it has come upon], this is its nature. So whoever is safe from it, like Hud, blessings and peace be upon him, and whoever believes in him, may Allah be pleased with them, his safety is an extraordinary matter, just as its matter in destroying everything it passes over is an extraordinary matter. The two sentences may be understood as a description of a wind, and it is more pleasant and more astonishing to the soul that they may be an independent statement. And when it was perhaps thought by some that it has an effect by itself, He said: (p-170) ﴿By the command of its Lord﴾ meaning: the Creator of it, the Nurturer, and the Benefactor in avenging with it against His enemies.

And when He mentioned it with this tremendous mention, and the implication was: it came to them and destroyed them, leaving none of them behind, the cause of that was an increase in the terror of His saying: ﴿So they became﴾. And when the listener's attention intensified to the manner of their becoming in the morning, He said, translating their destruction: "You do not see" meaning: O observer. And when the horror of the heart grew and the terror of the soul intensified, He, glorified and exalted is He, said: ﴿Except their dwellings﴾ meaning: a recompense for their crimes. Thus the expression applied to the meaning, and it was known that what is meant by the morning is the absolute existence. However, He expressed it because the calamity in it is greater. And it was known that there remained not from the deniers a dwelling nor a fire blower. And this is a metaphor for the universality of their destruction, whether the sand buried them or they were on the surface of the earth arranged as in the other verse.

﴿So you see the people in it fallen as if they were hollow trunks of palm trees﴾ [Al-Haaqqa: 7]. And it has been narrated that Hud, blessings and peace be upon him, when he sensed the wind, he took refuge with those who believed with him in a pen. And the wind tilted upon the disbelievers of the 'Aad, who were their gathering place when they spoke and the place of their play. They remained under it for seven nights and eight days. Then it uncovered them and carried them, casting them into the sea, and likewise it destroyed their livestock and everything that had a soul for them. And Hud, blessings and peace be upon him, and those with him, may Allah be pleased with them, were not harmed by it except what softened their skins and comforted their souls. And the verse is true in that the morning did not come upon them with anyone seen.

And when the hearts fled from this horror and the minds were astonished, He, glorified and exalted is He, said, alerting to the essence of the intended meaning by way of the independent statement: ﴿Thus﴾ meaning: like this tremendous recompense in its origin or its type or its kind or its person from the destruction ﴿We recompense﴾ with our greatness always whenever we wish ﴿the people﴾ even if they are the strongest that can be ﴿the criminals﴾ meaning: those deeply rooted in crime who sever what is due to be connected and connect what is due to be severed. And that recompense is destruction in this disgraceful manner. So beware, O Arabs, of such a thing if you do not return.