۞ Recount to them the story of (Hud), the brother of (the tribe of) 'Ad. Hud warned his people beside the sand-dunes -- and there have been other warners before him and since his time -- saying: “Serve none but Allah. Verily I fear that the chastisement of an awesome day shall come upon you.” 21 They said: art thou come unto us that thou mayest turn us aside from our gods? then bring thou upon us that wherewith thou threatenest us, if thou art of the truth-tellers. 22 He said, “Its knowledge is only with Allah; and I convey to you the messages of my Lord, but I perceive that you are an ignorant nation.” 23 Then, when they saw it as a sudden cloud coming towards their valleys, they said, 'This is a cloud, that shall give us rain!' 'Not so; rather it is that you sought to hasten -- a wind, wherein is a painful chastisement, 24 which will destroy everything at its Lord's behest!" And in the morning there was nothing left to be seen save their [empty] dwellings: thus We repay the evil-doers. 25 And We had firmly established them in a (prosperity and) power which We have not given to you (ye Quraish!) and We had endowed them with (faculties of) hearing, seeing, heart and intellect: but of no profit to them were their (faculties of) hearing, sight, and heart and intellect, when they went on rejecting the Signs of Allah; and they were (completely) encircled by that which they used to mock at! 26