Tafseer of The Dunes · Al-Ahqaf · 46:24
And when they saw it as a cloud approaching their valleys, they said, "This is a cloud bringing us rain!" Rather, it is that for which you were impatient: a wind, within it a painful punishment,
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: فَلَمَّا رَأَوْهُ عَارِضًا مُسْتَقْبِلَ أَوْدِيَتِهِمْ قَالُوا هَذَا عَارِضٌ مُمْطِرُنَا بَلْ هُوَ مَا اسْتَعْجَلْتُمْ بِهِ رِيحٌ فِيهَا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ (46:24) (And when they saw it as a cloud approaching over their valleys, they said: "This is a cloud bringing us rain." Nay, it is rather that which you sought to hasten: a wind in which there is a painful punishment.)
The Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says: and when the punishment of Allah, which they had sought to hasten, came to them and they saw it as a cloud looming in one of the regions of the sky ( مُسْتَقْبِلَ أَوْدِيَتِهِمْ ) — approaching over their valleys. The Arabs call the cloud that one sees rising in the evening in one part of the sky, and which the next morning turns out to be spread out evenly with parts creeping toward one another, a ʿāriḍ (a cloud lying crosswise), and that is because of its crosswise extension in one of the regions of the sky upon rising, as al-Aʿshā said:
"O you who see a crosswise cloud that I have watched all night long, it is as though the lightning at its edges were flames."
( قَالُوا هَذَا عَارِضٌ مُمْطِرُنَا ) — they supposed, when they saw it, that a rain shower had come to them by which they would be revived, and they said: "This is what Hūd promised us, namely the rain."
As Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning His saying ( فَلَمَّا رَأَوْهُ عَارِضًا مُسْتَقْبِلَ أَوْدِيَتِهِمْ ) ... the verse: we were told that the rain had been withheld from them for a time, and when they saw the punishment approaching ( قَالُوا هَذَا عَارِضٌ مُمْطِرُنَا ). And we were told that they said: "Hūd has lied, Hūd has lied." And when the Prophet of Allah ﷺ — [the cloud] approached and he saw it, he said: ( بَلْ هُوَ مَا اسْتَعْجَلْتُمْ بِهِ رِيحٌ فِيهَا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ).
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, saying: Allah drove the black cloud that Qayl ibn ʿAnz had chosen — with the vengeance it contained — toward ʿĀd, until it emerged over them out of a valley of theirs called al-Mughīth. When they saw it, they rejoiced ( قَالُوا هَذَا عَارِضٌ مُمْطِرُنَا ). Allah, mighty and exalted is He, says: ( بَلْ هُوَ مَا اسْتَعْجَلْتُمْ بِهِ رِيحٌ فِيهَا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ).
And His saying ( بَلْ هُوَ مَا اسْتَعْجَلْتُمْ بِهِ ): the Exalted, whose praise is exalted, says, reporting the saying of His prophet ﷺ Hūd to his people when they said to him, upon seeing the approaching cloud of punishment that had appeared in the sky before them: "This is a cloud bringing us rain by which we shall live" — it is not a rain cloud, but it is a cloud of punishment for you. Nay, it is rather that which you sought to hasten, that is to say: it is the punishment that you sought to hasten when you said: فَأْتِنَا بِمَا تَعِدُنَا إِنْ كُنْتَ مِنَ الصَّادِقِينَ (Bring us then that with which you threaten us, if you are among the truthful). ( رِيحٌ فِيهَا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ) — and the word "wind" (rīḥ) is resumed on the basis of what is in His saying ( هُوَ مَا اسْتَعْجَلْتُمْ بِهِ ), as though it were said: nay, it is a wind in which there is a painful punishment.
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the people of interpretation have spoken.
* Mention of those who said that:
Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, saying: Hūd was strong and steadfast among his people, and he was sitting in the midst of his people when a dark, menacing cloud came. ( قَالُوا هَذَا عَارِضٌ مُمْطِرُنَا ) and he said: ( بَلْ هُوَ مَا اسْتَعْجَلْتُمْ بِهِ رِيحٌ فِيهَا عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ ). He said: then there came a wind that began to overturn the tents and that came for the absent man and flung him away.
Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm al-Masʿūdī related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of his grandfather, saying: Sulaymān said: Abū Isḥāq related to us, on the authority of ʿAmr ibn Maymūn, saying: The wind lifted up the litter with the woman in it and raised her so high that she looked like a locust.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying ( فَلَمَّا رَأَوْهُ عَارِضًا مُسْتَقْبِلَ أَوْدِيَتِهِمْ ) ... to the end of the verse, he said: it is the wind when it stirs up a cloud. ( قَالُوا هَذَا عَارِضٌ مُمْطِرُنَا ) and their prophet said: nay, it is a wind in which there is a painful punishment.
