Overall meaning : To the tribe of 'Aad, the Almighty informs us, He sent their brother Hud. 'My people,’ he said, 'worship Allah alone faithfully and sincerely, for you have no other god worthy of worship other than Him. Surely by ascribing partners to Allah, you are only inventing lies about Him. I ask no wage from you, my people, by calling you to abandon idol worship and worship Allah alone. My reward is only with Allah who has created me. Will you not, then, use your intellect and distinguish between truth and falsehood?! My people, seek forgiveness of your Lord and turn to Him in penitence. He will send from the sky abundant rain upon you, thereby increasing your blessings, and will add strength to your strength by multiplying your progeny and bestowing successive bounties on you. Do not turn away from what I am calling you to and do not persist in your unbelief and disobedience.’
They said, 'Hud, you have brought us no clear evidence to prove the truthfulness of what you calling to, and we are not going to forsake our gods merely because you say so, nor are we going to believe you. All we can say is that some of our gods have afflicted you with madness for forbidding us to worship them.’ He said to them, 'I take Allah to be my witness, and you also bear witness, that I disown all the idols and false deities that you take up as partners with Allah and worship them besides Him. Plot anything that you wish against me and do me harm, you and your alleged gods, without any delay at all. I have placed my trust in Allah—my Lord and your Lord—who owns and manages everything, and thus no harm will afflict me except by His will. He is powerful over all things, and there is no living creature that He does not own and is not completely under His control and power. Straight indeed is my Lord’s way: all His judgements, laws and commands are perfectly just; He Justly rewards the good and punishes the evil. But if you choose to turn away and refuse to worship Allah alone, as I have commanded you, then know that I have delivered to you my Lord’s message and that you have no excuse before Him after evidence is fully established against you. And because you refuse to believe in Allah, He will destroy you and replace you with another people who will take possession of your homes and wealth and sincerely worship Him alone, and you will in no way harm Him by stubbornly rejecting faith. Surely my Lord watches over all things, and He will keep me safe from your any harm you may consider inflicting on me.’
And when Our command to destroy Hud’s unbelieving people came to pass, We saved Hud and the believers by Our grace and mercy, and We will save them, too, from a severe punishment—that of the Day of Judgement. That was the end of the tribe of 'Aad, who disbelieved Allah’s signs, disobeyed His messengers and followed the order of everyone who rebelled against Allah’s command and obstinately rejected the truth. They were followed in this world by a curse—in that they were excluded from His grace and mercy—and so will they be on the Day of Judgement. Surely the tribe of 'Aad denied and disobeyed their Lord. Excluded indeed was the tribe of 'Aad from Allah’s mercy and from all good.