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The Land of A'ad and Their Crafts
In the interpretation of 'Ali ben Ibrâhim: A'ad's land was in the
desert and they had plants and lot of palms, and they had long ages and
tall bodies and worshipped idols so God send to them Hud to call them back
to the rightful religion but they denied and did not believe in Hud and
hurted him so the sky catched its rains from them for seven years until
aridity became over them, and Hud was farmer and was watering the land
when some people came to his door asking for him so then an old woman with
one eye came out for them and asked: who are you and what do you want?
so they answered: we are from a land and our land was affected by aridity
so we came to Hud to pray to God to let the rain come over with fertility
to our lands. So she said to them: If prays of Hud were to be answered
he would pray for himself first, this is his land became arid and his plants
was burnt for the scarcity of water, so they asked: and where is he? so
she told them where he was and they went to him and made a complaint for
him and said to him: O prophet of God, our land became arid, and we've
come here to ask you to pray to God to let rains come over our lands, so
when he heard their complaints, he went to pray and asked God for what
they wanted and then said to them: go back to your lands, the rain did
fall. Then they told him what they saw and heard from that woman in his
house, so he said (PUH): this is my wife and I pray to God to give her
the long age, so they wondered: and how is that? So he answered: because
God never created a believer without an enemy that hurts him, and she is
my enemy, and to have an enemy that I own is better than having an enemy
that owns me.
So Hud (PUH) kept on calling his people to worship God and deny worshipping
the idols to make them happy in this life and the after-life and may their
lands be fruitful and their fortunes may increase and win the paradise
of the after-life, and it is as God said: And, O my people! Ask forgiveness
of your Lord, then turn unto Him repentant; He will cause the sky to rain
abundance on you and will add unto you strength to your strength. Turn
not away, guilty! They said: O Hud! Thou hast brought us no clear proof
and we are not going to forsake our gods on thy (mere) saying, and we are
not believers in thee.(Hud:52-53). So, when they did not believe God sent
upon them the "Sarsar" wind [sarsar is the word mentioned in Quran to describe
this wind], and it is the one of extreme coldness, and it is what God said
in the chapter of Al-Qamar: Lo! We let loose on them a raging wind on a
day of constant calamity(Al-Qamar:19).
And in the chapter of Al-Haqqah: And as for A'ad, they were destroyed
by a fierce roaring wind, Which He imposed on them for seven long nights
and eight long days so that thou mightest have seen men lying overthrown,
as they were hollow trunks of palm- trees (Al-Haqqah: 6-7), and so they
were continuous [notice in this line the author is explaining a word in
Arabic that meant to be continuous but the Pickthall translation used the
word "long"], and the first and the last of the eight days was Wednesday
and it is a day of continuous calamity (ill-luck).
And from Al-Kâfi [book's name] as reported from Abi Ja'far Al-Bâqir
(PUH) that he said: God has soldiers of winds to torture with it anyone
that He wants of those who denied His commandments and for every wind there
is an angel that controls it, so if God wanted to torture some people with
any type of winds He commands him (the angel that controls that wind for
torture) and the angel commands his wind and it becomes agitated like a
mad lion. Then he said (PUH): for every wind there is a special name attached
to it, don't you hear God's saying about A'ad: Lo! We let loose on them
a raging wind [sarsar] on a day of constant calamity(Al-Qamar:54) ? and
His saying: fatal wind [Al-`Aqeem] (Al-Thâriyat:51), and: a wind
wherein is painful torment (Al-Ahqâf:46). And God did say: a fiery
whirlwind striketh it and it is (all) consumed by fire(Al-Baqara:266).
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