وَلَمَّا جَآءَ أَمْرُنَا نَجَّيْنَا هُودًا وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مَعَهُۥ بِرَحْمَةٍ مِّنَّا وَنَجَّيْنَٰهُم مِّنْ عَذَابٍ غَلِيظٍ · وَتِلْكَ عَادٌ جَحَدُوا۟ بِـَٔايَٰتِ رَبِّهِمْ وَعَصَوْا۟ رُسُلَهُۥ وَٱتَّبَعُوٓا۟ أَمْرَ كُلِّ جَبَّارٍ عَنِيدٍ · وَأُتْبِعُوا۟ فِى هَٰذِهِ ٱلدُّنْيَا لَعْنَةً وَيَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَٰمَةِ أَلَآ إِنَّ عَادًا كَفَرُوا۟ رَبَّهُمْ أَلَا بُعْدًا لِّعَادٍ قَوْمِ هُودٍ
wa lammā jāʾa amrunā najjaynā Hūdan wa'lladhīna āmanū maʿahū bi-raḥmatin minnā wa najjaynāhum min ʿadhābin ghalīẓ · wa tilka ʿĀdun jaḥadū bi-āyāti rabbihim wa ʿaṣaw rusulahū wa'ttabaʿū amra kulli jabbārin ʿanīd · wa utbiʿū fī hādhihi'l-dunyā laʿnatan wa yawma'l-qiyāma, alā inna ʿĀdan kafarū rabbahum, alā buʿdan li-ʿĀdin qawmi Hūd
"When Our command came, We delivered Hūd and those who believed with him by a mercy from Us; We delivered them from a heavy punishment. · Such was ʿĀd: they denied the signs of their Lord knowing them for what they were, disobeyed His messengers, and followed the command of every obstinate tyrant. · They were pursued by a curse in this world and on the Day of Resurrection. Take note: ʿĀd denied their Lord. Take note: away with ʿĀd, the people of Hūd!"
In al-Shuʿarāʾ the ʿĀd narrative closed thus: fa-kadhdhabūhu fa-ahlaknāhum · inna fī dhālika la-āya… (26/139-140) — the destruction in one verb, the seal in two verses.
| Verse | Expression | Its work |
|---|---|---|
| 58 | najjaynā Hūdan wa'lladhīna āmanū maʿah | Deliverance — before the destruction |
| 59 | jaḥadū · ʿaṣaw · ittabaʿū | The counting of the offence — three verbs |
| 60 | utbiʿū … laʿna · alā buʿdan li-ʿĀd | The outcome |
And the most striking difference is in the first row: in Sūrat Hūd the deliverance is told before the destruction is told.
This holds in three narratives at once (58, 66, 94) and was tabulated in the section on the backbone.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the shared construction of the three verses: the seal of al-Shuʿarāʾ said "most of them did not believe" — it looked at number. The closing of Hūd, by contrast, names first those who were delivered — their number is not given, but their existence is reported. This is an explanation, not a ruling.
The root غ-ل-ظ: thickness, hardness, coarseness. The concrete sense of the word is the thickness of a fabric.
And the construction occurs in a few places in the Qurʾān (Ibrāhīm 14/17; Fuṣṣilat 41/50; Luqmān 31/24 — ʿadhābin ghalīẓ). It has occurred in Luqmān and Fuṣṣilat.
The root ج-ح-د. The sense the lexicographers record is worth setting down: jaḥd is to deny what one knows — not, that is, a failure to know, but a refusal to accept while knowing.
And the lexicographers record another use of the root as well: arḍun jaḥdatun — land of poor yield, dry ground. What the two senses have in common is withholding.
The root was treated at al-Naml 27/14 (wa jaḥadū bihā wa'stayqanathā anfusuhum), and I rely on that treatment — there the same thing was said outright: while their own souls were certain of it.
The root ج-ب-ر: to set a thing right by force, to bind a fracture; and from there, to compel. Jabbār — a tyrant. The word was treated at Qāf 50/45 (wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-jabbār), and I rely on that treatment.
And the side of the sentence that must be recorded is the third verb. I give this as an observation about the word order:
| # | Verb | Its direction |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | jaḥadū bi-āyāti rabbihim | Upward — rejecting the signs |
| 2 | ʿaṣaw rusulah | Against the messenger |
| 3 | ittabaʿū amra kulli jabbārin ʿanīd | Downward — following someone |
The third of the three verbs is positive: they followed. The list, that is, counts not only the rejection but what was put in its place.
And the word rusulah is plural: "His messengers". One messenger had come to ʿĀd (Hūd); the plural shows that rejecting one messenger is counted as rejecting the institution of messengership. The same structure was tabulated in al-Shuʿarāʾ — there each people denied al-mursalīn (plural). I rely on that treatment.