Quran Universe
54:21

فَكَيۡفَ كَانَ عَذَابِي وَنُذُرِ

Fakayfa kana AAathabee wanuthuri

And how [severe] were My punishment and warning.

Word by word
  1. فَكَيۡفَSo how
  2. كَانَwas
  3. عَذَابِيMy punishment
  4. وَنُذُرِand My warnings
Al-Qamar · 54:21Makkah

How was My punishment and warning, for Ad?

The same question, after the wind

After Ad
Ad's strengthdid not hold
so how was
My warning?the question again
Why repeat it
heard it onceso skip it
each nationgets its own question

After the furious wind and the uprooted palms, the same question returns. How was My punishment and My warning? The repetition ties Ad to Nuh's people. A different nation, the same end, the same question to the listener.

Your mother says the same thing to you for the third time this week. You roll your eyes, but she repeats it because it matters. A refrain is love that keeps knocking.

I have heard this already. I can skim it.

The repeated question is asked again because I have not answered it yet.

Try this

Read this verse slowly once more and answer it honestly in your own words.

Simplified reflection. Read the tafsir for scholarship.draft
Tafsir Ibn Kathir (shared passage from 54:18)

'Ad denied; then how was My torment and My warnings (18)Verily, We sent against them a violently cold (Sarsar) wind on a day of calamity, continuous (19)Plucking out men as if they were uprooted stems of date palms (20)Then, how was My torment and My warnings (21)And We have indeed made the Qur'an easy to understand and remember; then is there any that will remember (22)

The Story of 'Ad

Allah states that 'Ad, the People of Hud, denied their Messenger, just as the people of Nuh did. So, Allah sent on them,

عَلَيْهِمْ رِيحًا صَرْصَرًا 

(against them a violently cold (Sarsar) wind), means, a bitterly cold and furious wind,

 فِي يَوْمِ نَحْسٍ

(on a day of calamity), against them, according to Ad-Dahhak, Qatadah and As-Suddi,

 مُسْتَمِرٍّ

(continuous), upon them because the calamity, torment and destruction that they suffered in this life on that day continued with that of the Hereafter,

تَنْزِعُ النَّاسَ كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍ مُنْقَعِرٍ 

(Plucking out men as if they were uprooted stems of date palms.)

The wind would pluck one of them and raise him high, until he could no longer be seen, and then violently send him down on his head to the ground. His head would be smashed and only his body would be left, headless,

كَأَنَّهُمْ أَعْجَازُ نَخْلٍ مُنْقَعِرٍ - فَكَيْفَ كَانَ عَذَابِي وَنُذُرِ - وَلَقَدْ يَسَّرْنَا الْقُرْآنَ لِلذِّكْرِ فَهَلْ مِنْ مُدَّكِرٍ

(as if they were uprooted stems of date palms. Then, how was My torment and My warnings? And We have indeed made the Qur'an easy to understand and remember; then is there any that will remember?)