Aad & the Thamud

The fate of Aad and the Thamud, the tribes that faced ruin for transgression of divine norms should be an eye opener for nations around the world for all times to come. The fate of Aad and the Thamud is diligently laid down in Quranic Ayahs:

‘’As for Aad, they turned arrogant on earth, and opposed justice, and said, who is more powerful than us? Have they not considered that God, who created them, is more powerful than they? And they went on denying our revelations’’ (41:15)

The way the Aad behaved, their marked arrogance is not a peculiar phenomenon, down the ages such an arrogant attitude has struck the likes of Pharos. Earlier than the era of Pharos, Nimrod showed similar behavior, as Syedena Ibrahim (A.S) the patriarch of the Prophets of the Book (Ahl-e-Kitab) came with the divine message. Nimrod had arrogated to himself the temporal and the spiritual powers, much like Pharos of later age. Thus, what the Aad did was not unique, and what they faced for their transgression of divine norms was not unique either:

‘’So We unleashed upon them a screaming wind for a few miserable days, to make them taste the punishment of shame in this life; but the punishment of Hereafter is more shameful; and they will not be saved’’  (41:16)

Nor was the fate of Thamud different, as they faced a different form of punishment—different though as striking, as what struck the Aad:

‘’And as for Thamud We guided them, but they preferred blindness to guidance. So the thunderbolt of humiliating punishment seized them, because of what they used to earn’’ (41:17)

Thamud indeed earned the fate that befell them, in gross violation of the guidance provided; the greed of the worldly gains blinded them. There is however a Divine provision of safety for those who abide by the Divine Norms:

‘’And We saved those who believed and were righteous’’ (41:18)