21 Preface ۞ وَاذكُر أَخا عادٍ إِذ أَنذَرَ قَومَهُ بِالأَحقافِ وَقَد خَلَتِ النُّذُرُ مِن بَينِ يَدَيهِ وَمِن خَلفِهِ أَلّا تَعبُدوا إِلَّا اللَّهَ إِنّي أَخافُ عَلَيكُم عَذابَ يَومٍ عَظيمٍYusuf AliMention (Hud) one of ‘Ād’s (own) brethren:1 Behold, he warned his people about the winding Sandtracts:2 but there have been warners before him and after him: “Worship ye none other than God. Truly I fear for you the Penalty of a Mighty Day.”Cf. 7:65, and note 1040. The point is that the Warner who was raised among ‘Ād people-as among other peoples-was not a stranger, but one of their own brethren, even as the Prophet began his preaching with a call to his own brethren Quraish.Winding Sand-tracts: Ahqaf: Introduction to this Sūra. The very things, which, under irrigation and with God’s Grace, gave them prosperity and power, were to be their undoing when they broke God’s Law and defied His Grace. See verses 24-26 below.