And when the story of Noah, blessings and peace be upon him, came to an end regarding this great horror, that necessitated for the listener to think that no one would fall short after them even if He did not send a messenger. So how if He sent one? Then he longed to know what happened after them. Was it as he thought or did the people return to their natures? And the story of 'Aad was the greatest story that occurred after the people of Noah, blessings and peace be upon him, in what the Arabs know, and it is suitable to be a reminder for them. And their punishment was by the wind that destroyed them and uprooted their mountains that were in their places from the piled-up sands. Thus, transferring them to other locations is the closest evidence that He, glorified and exalted is He, will move the mountains on the Day of Judgment. This is in addition to what is in its description that is outside of the usual, from the blowing into the trumpet sometimes for the resurrection and sometimes for the revival. So it was responded to with His saying: "'Aad denied." That is, they caused the absolute denial which necessitated their denial of My messenger Hud, blessings and peace be upon him, in his call to them to Me and his warning to them of My punishment.

And when it was customary for kings, or some of them, that if he destroyed a people with many of his troops, some people like them would survive with similar sins so that he would elevate them and make them allies, lest his troops perish and his kingdom be disrupted. He followed the report of their denial with the announcement of their transgression, for He does not care about anything since everything is in His grasp. And when their denial was only by His will, just as His punishment is by His will, He said, causing it to be a result of that: "So how" means, in all circumstances, due to their denial, "was My punishment" for them, "and My warnings" that is, My warning to them by the tongue of My messenger. And He repeated this inquiry at the end of their story, so it was in their story twice as previously mentioned from its secret - and Allah knows best.