Have you not considered how your Lord dealt with 'Âd,
Iram, of the lofty pillars,
the like of which had never been created in the land?
The Qur'an says 'Âd and Iram. The commentators differ: Iram is a city for some, a tribe or an ancestor for others.
Where? The Qur'an names one place: al-Ahqâf, the curving dunes. Hûd (peace be upon him) warned his people there.
Many commentators place it in the south of Arabia, between Yemen and Oman.
Some link Iram to ruins found in Oman, known as Ubar. That is a hypothesis, not a text.
When? After the people of Nûh (peace be upon him): Allah made 'Âd their successors.
Hûd reminds them that Allah “increased you in stature extensively”.
The commentators read it as great height and bodily strength. The Qur'an gives no measure.
“Do you build a landmark on every height, amusing yourselves,
and take for yourselves fortresses, as if you would live forever?”
Building was not the fault. Building to show off, as if death would never come: that was.
And to 'Âd, their brother Hûd.
He said: “O my people, worship Allah, you have no god but Him. Will you not fear Him?”
“Their brother”: a prophet from among them, a man they knew and who knew them.
He offered them more, not less: ask forgiveness, and Allah will send rain and add strength to your strength.
Their answer: “Who is greater than us in strength?”
Allah answers in the same verse: did they not see that Allah, who created them, is greater in strength?
A people so strong that they asked: “Who is greater than us in strength?”
This is the story of how that question was answered.
'Âd had towers, fortresses and strength, and asked who could beat them.
Tonight, name three strengths you have, and thank Allah for each one, by name.