Ash-Shu'ara · Makki · ayah 124 of 227

Ash-Shu'ara 26:124

إِذْ قَالَ لَهُمْ أَخُوهُمْ هُودٌ أَلَا تَتَّقُونَ

“When their brother Hūd said to them, "Will you not fear Allāh?”

Saheeh International

Essence

Hud, a brother from among ʿĀd, opened with the same question Nuh asked: will you not guard yourselves against Allah's displeasure?

A reflection

A brother, not a stranger from outside

This opening question, alā tattaqūn, was first heard in this surah from Nuh (26:106). Its fullest treatment in the app is at 37:124, where Ilyas asks it.

What is new here is the man. 'Their brother Hud.' The commentators explain the word plainly: a brother by lineage, not by religion. Another view takes it more widely: one of their own kind, as Arabs say 'brother of Tamim' for any man of that tribe. Allah sends each messenger in his own people's tongue (14:4).

ʿĀd could not dismiss Hud as a foreigner with strange ideas. He spoke their language, knew their families and shared their history. The message came from inside the tribe.

That removes an easy excuse. We often reject a hard truth by calling it someone else's culture. Hud's people had no such escape, and neither, often, do we.

The full entry has 2 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.