Who Was Shaddad ibn Ad? Builder of Iram, in legend in Islamic History

Before the worldBefore Adam

The first nationsAdam to Shuayb

Egypt and Bani Israilc. 1300–1000 BCE

Bani Israil and Romec. 1000 BCE – 250 CE

Arabia before IslamUp to 570 CE

Enemies of the Prophet ﷺ610–632 CE

After the Prophet ﷺ632–1000 CE

Crusades and conquests1090–1502 CE

The end of timeStill to come

Ten signs before the Hour

Isa ibn Maryam descends
A landslide in the east
A landslide in the west
A landslide in Arabia
The smoke
The sun rises from the west
The Beast of the earth
A fire from Yemen drives people to their gathering

Sahih Muslim lists ten major signs before the Hour without fixing their order. This follows a common order given by the scholars. Sahih Muslim 2901a ↗

Villains of history7 / 76

شداد بن عاد

Shaddad ibn Ad

Builder of Iram, in legendPeople of Ad (legend)

Relied onA city of pillars to rival Paradise

Undone byDeath at the gate, in the story

Storytellers say a king of Ad built Iram, a city of gold and lofty pillars meant to rival Paradise, and died before he could enter it.

How it ended

The Quran says only that Ad of Iram, 'who had lofty pillars', were destroyed with the other nations that transgressed (89:6-13).

[With] Iram - who had lofty pillars,
Quran 89:7

The lessonThe Quran keeps the lesson of Iram, not the gold of its walls.

In the Quran

89:6-14

Stood against
Source: In the Quran, named by the commentatorsThe tale of Shaddad and his golden city is not in the Quran or authentic hadith. Ibn Kathir in his tafsir treats it as a fable of the storytellers. Most commentators take Iram as a tribe or a city of Ad.

Every villain in Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal

Each entry is drawn from the Quran, authentic hadith (with links to sunnah.com), the classical commentators and the historians. Companions who fought Islam and later became Muslim are not included, nor are figures Muslims disagree about.

Before the worldBefore Adam

Before Adam Iblis: the one who refused