Sūrah 26 · Āyāt 123–140

al-Shuʿarāʾ 123–140 — Hūd and ʿĀd: monuments, strongholds, and the seizing of tyrants

Hūd's story follows Nūḥ's on the same template — ʿĀd denied the messengers… their brother Hūd… a trustworthy messenger… I ask no wage — and the sources treat the recurring frame briefly, referring back to Nūḥ, while al-Mīzān pauses to draw out the point of the whole series: prefacing each of the five stories with the messengers' trustworthiness, their asking no wage, and their command of taqwā signals "that the basis of prophethood is the call to know the truth and to obey," the prophets all agreeing on this though their laws' branches differ by age. al-Mīzān also situates ʿĀd historically — the "ancient pure Arabs" of the Aḥqāf, destroyed by "the barren wind."

The three indictments (128–130). What distinguishes this pericope is Hūd's specific charge against ʿĀd's civilization, and the sources read it as a critique of excess. Do you build on every height a monument, sporting? — Ṭabarsī and al-Mīzān both take taʿbathūn as frivolity: needless monuments raised "out of vain following of caprice." Ṭabarsī anchors this in the tradition of Anas (also in al-Mīzān's narration section): the Prophet shunned a man's lofty dome until he levelled it, saying "every building is a burden on its owner on the Day of Resurrection, except what he cannot do without." And take strongholds, that perhaps you may abide forever — al-Mīzān reads the clause as grounding the works in a hope of immortality: "but for that hope they would not raise works meant to last ages beyond any human life." And when you seize, you seize as tyrants — all agree baṭsh is violent oppression and jabbār is one who "arrogates despotism"; Ṭūsī and al-Mīzān frame the three verses together as excess "on both sides, appetite and anger, leaving the bound of servitude." Here the Imāmī sources add their distinctive note: al-Qummī and al-Baḥrānī (from al-Bāqir) gloss on every height a sign (āya) as "on every road — and the sign is ʿAlī," and you seize as tyrants as "you kill in anger, without desert" (rendered as attributed).

The call to gratitude and the reply (131–138). Hūd grounds fear God in fear Him who supplied you (amaddakum) with what you know — cattle, sons, gardens, springs. al-Mīzān reads the attribute as causal: fear Him because He supplies you, so thank Him and do not requite favours with ingratitude (14:7); and "what you know" carries a proof — you know these are His alone, so He, not the idols, is to be feared. ʿĀd's reply — it is the same to us whether you admonish or not — is unanimous total denial; and their this is nothing but the khalq/khuluq of the ancients is read by Ṭabarsī, Ṭūsī and al-Mīzān across its two vocalizations: either "the fabrication of the ancients" (the lie of false former prophets) or "the custom of the ancients" (our building, seizing, or living-and-dying without resurrection), sealed by we shall not be punished — a denial of the Return. As ever, the story closes on most of them were not believers; your Lord is the Almighty, the Merciful.