The Quran

۞ وَاذكُر أَخا عادٍ إِذ أَنذَرَ قَومَهُ بِالأَحقافِ وَقَد خَلَتِ النُّذُرُ مِن بَينِ يَدَيهِ وَمِن خَلفِهِ أَلّا تَعبُدوا إِلَّا اللَّهَ إِنّي أَخافُ عَلَيكُم عَذابَ يَومٍ عَظيمٍ

Muhammad Asad

AND REMEMBER that brother of [the tribe of] 'Ad,¹ how - seeing that [other] warnings had already come and gone within his own knowledge as well as in times beyond his ken² - he warned his people [who lived] among those sand-dunes: "Worship none but God! Verily, I fear lest suffering befall you on an awesome day!"

I.e., the Prophet Hud (see surah 7, note 48). The mention of Hud and the tribe of 'Ad connects with the last sentence of the preceding verse, inasmuch as this tribe "transgressed all bounds of equity all over their lands" (89:11).
Lit., "from between his hands and from behind him". This idiomatic phrase (explained in note 247 on 2:255) is evidently an allusion to the many warning messages, in Hud's own time as well as in the almost forgotten past, which ought to have made - but did not make - the tribe of 'Ad conscious of how far astray they had gone. We have here a subtle, parenthetic reminder that, apart from the revelations which He bestows upon His prophets, God offers His guidance to man through the many signs and warnings apparent in all nature as well as in the changing conditions of human society.