Faakhathahumu alAAathabu inna fee thalika laayatan wama kana aktharuhum mu'mineen (surah Shuara: 158)

Tafseer Tafheem-ul-Quran by Syed Abu-al-A'la Maududi

(26:158) for the torment overtook them. *106 . Indeed there is a Sign in this, but most of these people would not believe;

Fa akhazahumul `azaab; inna fee zaalika la Aayah; wa maa kaana aksaruhum m`mineen

*106) As stated at other places in the Qur'an, when the she-camel was killed, Prophet Salih declared: "You have only three more days to enjoy yourselves in your houses." (Hud: 65) When this time limit came to an end, a shocking explosion took place in the night at about dawn, followed by a violent earthquake, which destroyed the whole nation completely. In the morning their dead bodies lay scattered here and there like dry pieces of bush trampled down by animals around an enclosure. Neither their stony castles nor their rock-hewn caves could protect them against the calamity. "We sent against them a single blast and they became as the trampled twigs of the fence of a fold-builder." (AI-Qamar: 31). "Consequently a shocking catastrophe overtook them and they lay lifeless in their dwellings" (Al-A'raf: 78). "At last a violent blast overtook them with the approach of the morning, and all that they had achieved proved of no avail to them." (AIHijr: 83, 84).