Fussilat (Explained in detail)

15. As for ‘Ad, they were arrogant in the land without right and they said: “Who is mightier than us in strength?” See they not that Allah Who created them is mightier in strength than them. And they used to deny Our Ayat [Signs and Verses].

The people of ‘Ad inhabited the South of the Arabian Peninsula. They were mighty warriors who had constructed fortified castles and lofty buildings and all these had led to their arrogance and vanity.

What leads to disbelievers’ perdition is their persistence in their disbelief and obduracy. The blessed Verse is saying that the people of ‘Ad were destroyed by gale owing to their sin of being arrogant in the land without right. They regarded themselves to be superior in strength assuming that no one may vanquish them.

Consequently, they asked others as to the existence of any people superior to them in terms of strength and power.

When arrogance stemming from the bestial faculty vanquishes man, he consigns to oblivion his essential non-existence and contingent needs and takes pride in himself assuming that his glory and power is permanent, but he disregards the truth that God Almighty is All-Superior in His Omnipotence against Whose Boundless Power, all other powers are nothing in comparison.

The rhetorical question aims to reveal that all these people who deny Prophetic Calls disregard the fact that the Creator who has brought them from non-existence into existence is far superior to them in terms of power.

How could they deny His Signs of Omnipotence? It is needless to say that taking a glance at one’s creation and the frailties of man from his embryonic stage onwards may remove arrogance and vanity.

“See they not that Allah Who created them is mightier in strength than them. And they used to deny Our Ayat [Signs and Verses].”