Surah Hud (Hud) 11 : 62

Explanatory Note

Their hearts, however, have been blinded by their corruption. They are no longer responsive. Hence, they do not feel the beauty or the majesty of the reality of Godhead, nor do they appreciate the friendliness and the care with which Şāliĥ addresses them. On the contrary, they are surprised and start to doubt their trusted brother.

They tell him that they had placed great hopes in him. Where once they had appreciated his wide knowledge, honesty, sensibility and wisdom, they are now totally disappointed. Why? To them, that was the calamity. They expected anything but this. And this raised grave doubts in their minds about everything Şāliĥ had said.
Thus, the Thamūd are puzzled by what is straightforward. They consider as strange and singular what is right and clear. They are amazed that their brother, Şāliĥ, should call them to worship God alone. Their astonishment, however, is not based on any evidence, argument, or intellectual thought. They are astonished only because their forefathers worshipped such false gods. People can indeed reach this level of blindness. They base their beliefs on nothing more than the fact that their forefathers believed in the same thing. Once again we find that the faith based on God’s oneness is, in essence, a call for the complete and total liberation of the human mind from its bonds of blind imitation of the past, and from the shackles of legendary illusions.