Had they been aware in the least...

Had they been aware in the least, they would have thought about the realization of the threat.” The people were indifferent toward Hud’s (as) words and Divine Promise and Threat but waxed their disobedience. According to Qur’an exegets, God Almighty sent down famine and three years passed without a single drop of rain so that they may take a lesson. Prophet Hud (as) asked them to believe in Monotheism so that God may send down rain or else Divine torment would be brought upon them.

At the end and out of dire necessity they sought refuge in Ka’ba which was merely a pile of red sand at the time. A certain adherent of Hud (as) asked them to believe in Hud’s prophethood in order to save themselves from the disaster, but they ignored him and put him in prison.

When they saw it as a dense cloud coming toward their valleys, they said: “This is a cloud bringing us rain!” Nay, but he [Hud] said that it is that [torment] which you were asking to be hastened – a wind wherein is a painful torment! 25. Destroying everything by the Command of its Lord! So they became such that nothing could be seen except their dwellings! Thus do We recompense the people who are sinners. The word ‘Aridh denotes a cloud appearing in the sky covering the horizon all over.

Awdiya is the plural form of wadi (“valley; dwelling place”). Having faced severe famine and having awaited rain for long, the people of ‘Ad were gladdened to see the cloud in the sky but later on they found out that the cloud was not a harbinger of felicity but one of misfortune. It was the torment sought desirously and hastily by them. Seeing three clouds in the sky, the people of ‘Ad thought that they would bring rain, but they were mistaken. Au contraire, they led to their annihilation.

It was the same severe torment of which prophet Hud (as) had informed them and said that had they not believed in Monotheism and had they worshipped the One God, they would have not suffered from the severe torment. However, they were too ignorant to believe him and said that if he had been in the right he would have brought that severe torment upon them.