The Quran

Preface

وَعادًا وَثَمودَ وَقَد تَبَيَّنَ لَكُم مِن مَساكِنِهِم ۖ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيطانُ أَعمالَهُم فَصَدَّهُم عَنِ السَّبيلِ وَكانوا مُستَبصِرينَ

Yusuf Ali

(Remember also) the ‘Ād and the Thamūd (peoples):¹ clearly will appear to you from (the traces) of their buildings (their fate): the Evil One made their deeds alluring² to them, and kept them back from the Path, though they were gifted with intelligence and skill.

For ‘Ād people see 7:65-72, and n. 1040, and for Thamūd, 7:73-79, and n. 1043. The remains of their buildings show (1) that they were gifted with great intelligence and skill; (2) that they were proud of their material civilisation; and (3) their destruction argues how the greatest material civilisation and resources cannot save a People who disobey God’s moral law.
They were so arrogant and self-satisfied, that they missed the higher purpose of life, and strayed clean away from the Path of God. Though their intelligence should have kept them straight, Evil made them crooked and led them and kept them astray.