STORY OF HUD (HOOD) THE PROPHET

STORY OF HUD (HOOD) THE PROPHET

The Holy Quran says: And the Aad, they were destroyed by a furious Wind, exceedingly violent; He made it rage against them seven nights and eight days in succession: so that thou couldst see the (whole) people lying prostrate in its (path), as they had been roots of hollow palm-trees tumbled down! Then seest thou any of them left surviving? (69:6-8) Today, when we travel through southern Arabian Peninsular, we will most frequently come across is the vast desert. Most of the places, with the exception of the cities and regions that have been later afforested, are covered with sand. These deserts have been there for hundreds and maybe thousands of years. This area is void of all marks of life. 

There are neither plants nor water. However, was this area a desert thousands of years ago? No. There were green fertile areas in this desert land. Archeologists have found the ruins of a city with springs & gardens buried under the sand. Ahqaf means “sand dunes” in Arabic and it is the plural form of the word “Hiqf” which means a “sand dune”, a raised spot in the desert. This shows that the people of Aad lived in a region full of “sand dunes”, which provided the most logical ground possible for the fact that they were buried by a sand storm. According to one interpretation, Ahqaf lost its meaning of “sand hills” and became the name of the region in south Yemen where the people of Aad lived. The people of Aad lived here in the pre-historic ages, and used to erect high building on any elevated pieces of land to serve as a sign. They were specialists in building palaces, castles, and forts. They had constructed underground canals, and were engaged in agriculture and farming, they had grown gardens. In that period of time, the people of Aad built the greatest and wonderful city in the world. It was the city of Iram: “Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with the Aad (people), of the Iram, with lofty pillars, the like of which were not produced in (all) the land?” (89:6-8) It was full of palaces and gardens. Shaddad - a strong, pagan man ordered the city to be built. He wanted it to be a garden to live in. He thought that he would never die. He was very strong, so he thought that he would be immoral.

Prophet Hud was sent to correct the people of Aad. Prophet Hud was not a stranger but one of their own brethren from the tribe of Aad itself as the Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was to his brethren Quraishites. He was enjoining a great patience in guiding people and was tolerant enough against their ignorance. He was respected because of his noble family and his good manners. He was the son of Abdullah, grandson of Sam and the great-grandson of Prophet Noah. People of Aad were mostly well off and were enjoying a high income. Who were very flourishing and physically a very strong people with huge structure. And also they were idolatrous, having abundant wealth as well as a long life made each and every of them to be rebellious. Thus, together, they formed a revolting proud tribe and used to say, People: “Who is mightier than us in power?” When anything good happened to them they would thank their idols and when they were in trouble, they used to pray to these idols for help.

Prophet Hud used to say, “You people! Shall worship the unique God, for there is nothing greater than Him. Why don’t you adopt the way of piety and virtue? I don’t expect any reward from you for I shall be rewarded only by the Great God who has created me. Why don’t you ponder more about it? I only declare my God’s messages for you and I shall be a trustworthy and benevolent guide for you.” “O Brothers, why do you worship stones that you have carved yourself? The idols can not give you anything or take anything away from you. You are not fools but what you are doing is against your intelligence. Your Lord is only One, and He alone should be worshipped. He has created you, given you health and wealth, and made you a powerful nation. Do not rebel against God in case you meet the fate of the people of Prophet Noah.”

A man of Aad tribe answered: “Whether you advise us or not, it’s all the same because idolatry is a tradition
coming to us from our ancestors during thousands of years.” The other man added, “We consider you a fool and shall think of you as a liar.”

Prophet Hud replied: “You the people of Aad tribe! I’m not a fool but a messenger from the Lord of the world. Now pray and ask forgiveness from the Almighty and do repent to His Greatness so that fruitful and plentiful rain would descend and increase your present strength to a great extent.” However Prophet Hud tried his best to correct their faith and behavior to bring them to the right path but all in vain. The people were extremely arrogant and proud. They harassed Prophet Hud and even beat him. In spite of all the odds, he kept on delivering the message of Almighty God. The people were punished with a drought & famine for three or seven years. Prophet Hud used to continuously admonish the people saying. Believe in Almighty God and repent you for your sins, you will have rain from Almighty God. Prophet Hud kept on preaching the Oneness of God; though he met with little success. But all this proved to be futile since the people were not prepared to give up idol worship prevalent from their forefathers.

People were facing great hardships; so they assembled at Prophet Hud’s place and a black woman with ugly face and a bold head came out and coming to know that the people had assembled to pray to God for rain said: What! If the prayer of Hud was so sure to be heard by God, he would have prayed for himself, for his own cornfields are totally burnt and destroyed by the Sun. The people however requested Prophet Hud to pray for rain. Prophet Hud prayed and asked them to return to their places. The people then asked who the old ugly woman was, who appeared at his door and spoke to them? Prophet Hud said that she was his wife for whom he prayed to God to give her the longest life possible. When they asked as to why he prayed so, Prophet Hud replied; she is my enemy. It is better to have an enemy under us then being under an enemy. After the rain the people prospered very much but did not correct their faith. The people not only refused to listen to the preaching of Prophet Hud but they transgressed their limits.

One of them said: “There shall be no torment for us and your advice will never have the least effect on us.” Another one said: “If your words are true, bring us the torment which you’re threatening us to.” Then the people of the tribe were destined to suffer the heavenly torment (Azaab-e-Ilahi). So God selected some hurricane like winds, called Sarsar and Aghim, to destroy them. And one day those who were expecting rainfall notice a black cloud appearing in the horizon and then through God’s permission, there was a strong and terrible wind that uprooted their houses and tossed the animals into the air and destroyed everything on its way. The violent storm continued for eight successive days and seven nights and by the end of it the proud people of Aad were totally destroyed. The wind buried the wonderful city of Iram, under the sands. It had destroyed its houses and their strong marble pillars. Prophet Hud and his virtuous followers (very few in numbers) who had left the place were saved.

The arrogant people of Aad were wiped out of existence. After the destruction of the Aad people, Prophet Hud migrated to some place in Hadramaut and died near the valley of Barhoot and is buried there, after spending two hundred and sixty five (265) years on earth.

Note: At the beginning of 1990, there appeared press-releases in the well-known newspapers of the world declaring “Arabian city of Legend found”, “The Atlantis of the Sands, Ubar.” Hence Ubar has been identified as the city of Iram mentioned in the Quran.

What one should do in looking at those remains buried in the sands is to take warning just as the Quran stresses that the people of Aad went astray of the right path because of their arrogance and said “What! Did they not see that God, Who created them, was superior to them in strength?” (41:15) What a person has to do is bear this unchangeable fact in mind all the time and understand that the greatest and the most honored is always Almighty God and that one can only prosper by adoring Him.