﴿That which was not created﴾ means He is able and creates. He built it for the purpose of the action intending to generalize. ﴿Like it﴾ it is valid for the pronoun to return to 'ʿĀd' considering the tribe, or to 'Iram' considering the city. He clarified this by saying generalizing for all the land: ﴿In the lands﴾ meaning in its buildings and facilities, and its fruits, and the division of its waters and rivers, and the goodness of its land and the beauty of its birds, and what has gathered in it that cannot be counted and overwhelms the powers. There is no one like its people who built it in the strength of their bodies and their great status, and other matters of theirs. Its owner was Shaddād who had possessed all the inhabited land, so he fortified it and built it in the wilderness of ʿAdn in three hundred years, resembling Paradise according to what was claimed. Hearts have gone astray and led astray, and its Creator has misled them. Abu Hayyan said: On descriptions that are far-fetched or normally impossible to be in the land like it. When it was completed as he intended, he aimed for it for dwelling and inhabited it then for nine hundred years. When it was a day's and night's journey from it, Allah sent upon them a cry from the heavens and destroyed them, so they were like yesterday's gone. Their city was hidden, and no one saw it except Abdullah ibn Qulabah. He went out in search of camels that had strayed from him during the time of Muawiyah, may Allah be pleased with him, and he stumbled upon it. When he left it and separated from it, it became hidden from him. He had carried with him some of what he saw in it of pearls, musk, and saffron, and he sold it. Muawiyah, may Allah be pleased with him, heard about it, so he sent for him and he informed him. Muawiyah, may Allah be pleased with him, sent to Ka'b al-Ahbar and asked him about that, and he said: It is Iram of the pillars. A man from the Muslims will enter it in your time, fair-skinned, red, short, with a mole on his eyebrows, and a mole on his ankle, going out in search of camels for him. Then he turned and saw Ibn Qulabah and said: This, by Allah, is that man. - Our Sheikh mentioned him in the narration of the hadith of the Kashaf and said: The signs of fabrication are apparent on him. A group among them, including Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with them both, said: All the descriptions are for the tribe, and they are the first ʿĀd. Its name is Iram by the name of their grandfather. They were nomadic Arabs who built their houses on pillars according to the custom of the Arabs, and no nation like them was created among the nations in all the lands.