كَذَّبَتْ ثَمُودُ الْمُرْسَلِينَ (141)
(26:141) Thamud rejected the Messengers. *95
*95) For comparison, see Al-A'raf: 73-79, Hud: 61-68, AI-Hijr: 80-84, Bani Isra'il 59; and for further details, see An-Naml . 45-53, Az-Zariyat: 43-45, AI-Qamar: 23-31, AI-Haqqah: 4-5, Al-Fajr: 9, and Ash-Shams: 11. _Thamud achieved power and glory after the destruction of 'Ad and as far as progress in civilization is concerned, they followed in the footsteps of their predecessors. In their case, too, the standards of living went on rising higher and higher and the standards of humanity continued to fall lower and lower, suffering one deterioration after the other. On the one hand, they erected large edifices on the plains and hewed beautiful houses out of the hills like those in the caves of Ellora and Ajanta in India, and on the other, they became addicted to idol-worship and the land was filled with tyranny and oppression. The worst men became leaders and rulers in the land. As such, Prophet Salih's message of Truth only appealed to the weak people belonging to the lower social strata and the people of the upper classes refused to believe in him.