'Ad

'Ad was the ancient Arabian tribe to whom Prophet Hud was sent — known for their immense physical strength, their towering constructions, and their deep conviction that worldly power exempted them from divine accountability. Ibn Kathir describes them as a civilization at the absolute peak of human achievement in their era: builders of monuments on every high place, possessors of a physical stature and strength that no other people could match, and inhabitants of the fertile lands of southern Arabia known as al-Ahqaf. Their destruction by a divinely-sent wind over seven nights and eight days became, in Quranic vocabulary, the archetypal warning for every civilization that confuses worldly greatness with spiritual security.

As understood in the classical tradition of Ibn Kathir and the scholars of his school.