Surah al-Qamar (The Moon ) 54 : 31

Explanatory Note

"We sent against them a single blast, and they became like the thy twigs of the sheepfold builder." The Qur'an does not give us any details here about this blast. However, it is described in Surah 41 as a thunderbolt: "If they turn away, say: I warn you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt that struck the Ad and Thamud." (41: 13) The thunderbolt may only be a description of the blast making it a 'thunderbolt blast', or it may be a true description of its nature making the blast and the thunderbolt one and the same thing. Alternatively, the blast may be the sound produced by the thunderbolt, or the thunderbolt may merely be an effect of the blast about which we know very little. Be that as it may, one blast was sent against those people, causing great havoc and leaving them like the dry twigs of one who needs such material to build a sheepfold, or used by a farmer as food for his cattle kept in a sheepfold. That blast reduced the people of Tharnad to a state of dry twigs. It is a fearful image raised against their earlier arrogance. All that remains of them is utter humiliation.