65 Preface ۞ وَإِلىٰ عادٍ أَخاهُم هودًا ۗ قالَ يا قَومِ اعبُدُوا اللَّهَ ما لَكُم مِن إِلٰهٍ غَيرُهُ ۚ أَفَلا تَتَّقونَYusuf AliTo the ‘Ād people,1 (We sent) Hud, one of their (own) brethren: He said: O my people! worship God. ye have no other god but Him will ye not fear (God)?”The ‘Ād people, with their prophet Hud, are mentioned in many places. See especially 26:123-140, and 46:21-26. Their story belongs to Arabian tradition. Their eponymous ancestor ‘Ād was fourth in generation from Noah, having been a son of 'Aus, the son of Aram, the son of Sam, the son of Noah. They occupied a large tract of country in Southern Arabia, extending from 'Uman at the mouth of the Persian Gulf to Hadramawt and Yemen at the southern end of the Red Sea. The people were tall in stature and were great builders. Probably the long, winding tracts of sands (ahqaf) in their dominions (46:21) were irrigated with canals. They forsook the true God, and oppressed their people. A three-year famine visited them, but yet they took no warning. At length a terrible blast of wind destroyed them and their land, but a remnant, known as the second ‘Ād or the Thamūd (see below) were saved, and afterwards suffered a similar fate for their sins. The tomb of the Prophet Hud (qohr Nabi Hud) is still traditionally shown in Hadramut, latitude 15?N and longitude 49V? ?E, about 90 miles north of Mukalla. There are ruins and inscriptions in the neighbourhood. See “Hadramut: Some of its Mysteries Unveiled,” by D. van der Meulen and H. von Wissmann, Leyden, 1932. (R).