Page 84 - Perished Nations

As Doe, one of the researchers conducting the research, said; "So fertile
was the area around Ma’rib, that one might conceive that the whole region
between Ma’rib and Hadhramaut was once under cultivation." 26
The Greek classical writer Pliny had described this region as being very
fertile, and mist-covered with forested mountains, rivers and unbroken
tracts of forests. In the inscriptions found in some ancient temples close to
Shabwah, the capital city of the Hadramites, it was written that animals
were hunted in this region and that some were sacrificed. All these reveal
that this region was once covered with fertile lands as well as desert.
The speed with which the desert can encroach can be seen in some
recent research done by the Smithsonian Institute in Pakistan where an
area known to be fertile in the Middle Ages has turned into sandy desert,
with dunes six metres high. The sands can swallow even the highest build-
ings, and cover them as if they had never existed. Thus excavations at
Timna in Yemen in the 1950’s have been almost completely covered up
again. The Egyptian pyramids were also entirely under sands once and
were only brought to light after very long-lasting excavations. Briefly, it is
very clear that regions known to be desert today could have had different
appearances in the past.

How were ‘Ad ruined?
In the Qur’an, ‘Ad are said to have perished through a "furious wind".
In the verses of the Qur’an, it is mentioned that this furious wind lasted for
seven nights and eight days and destroyed ‘Ad totally.
The 'Ad (people) (too) rejected (Truth): then how terrible was My Penalty
and My Warning? For We sent against them a furious wind, on a Day of vio-
lent Disaster, Plucking out men as if they were roots of palm-trees torn up
(from the ground). (Surat al-Qamar: 18-20)
And the 'Ad, they were destroyed by a furious Wind, exceedingly violent.
He made it rage against them seven nights and eight days in succession: so
that thou couldst see the (whole) people lying prostrate in its (path), as
they had been roots of hollow palm-trees tumbled down! (Surat al-Haqqa:
6-7)
Though warned previously, the people had paid no attention to the
warnings whatsoever and continuously refuted their messengers. They

Harun Yahya
76