Page 80 - Perished Nations

The People of ‘Ad

So far, we have seen that Ubar could possibly be the city of Iram men-
tioned in the Qur’an. As revealed in the Qur’an, the inhabitants of the city
did not listen to the Prophet Hud (as), who had brought a message to them
and who warned them, and so they perished.
The identity of ‘Ad who found the city of Iram has also created much
debate. In historical records, there is no mention of a people having such
a developed culture or of the civilisation they established. It might be
thought quite strange that the name of such a people is not found in his-
torical records.
On the other hand, it may not be so surprising not to come across the
presence of these people in the records and archives of old civilisations.
The reason for that is that these people lived in South Arabia, which was
a region distant from other people living in the Mesopotamia region and
the Middle East, and which only had a restricted relationship with them. It
was a common situation for a state, which is scarcely known, not to be
recorded in the historical records. On the other hand, it is possible to hear
stories among people in the Middle East about ‘Ad.
The most important reason why ‘Ad has not been mentioned in the
written records is that written communication was not common in the
region at that time. Therefore, it is possible to think that ‘Ad founded a
civilisation but this civilisation had not been mentioned in the historical
records of those other civilisations that kept documentation. If this culture
had existed a little longer, maybe much more would be known about these
people today.
There is no written record of ‘Ad, but it is possible to find important
information about their descendants and to have an idea about ‘Ad in the
light of this information.

Hadramites, the Descendants of ‘Ad
The first place to consider while searching for the traces of a probable
civilisation established by ‘Ad or their descendants, is South Yemen, where
"The Atlantis of the Sands, Ubar" is found and which is referred to as

Harun Yahya
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