Baagh-e-Iram and Shaddad

Iram, or Iram of the Pillars, is a mythical city that had to bear the onslaughts of a divine wrath which came as punishment to the people of Aad. It happened because the people disregarded a prophet’s call to follow the path of one God. As a consequence of their disobedience, they had to face eight days and seven nights of sandstorm to the extent that their entire city, with its lofty pillars, got buried under the sand. Later, this lost civilization found its way into the folklores of several cultures. While scholars have long debated the presence of an actual city like this, others believe that it relates with the “Lost city of Atlantis”.

With this also goes the story of an oppressive king called Shaddad who was the son of Aad. Shaddad was fully drunk on his power and pelf and refused to accept the prophet’s call to Islamic faith. Instead, he claimed that he himself was a god and that there was no god other than him. He got a well-decorated heaven made to counter the promised heaven as preached by the prophet. When his heaven was ready, he set out to inspect it finally but his soul was strangled by the angel of death on the way and he could not reach there. This story of his false pride is referred to in the Quran (Sura 89) as an admonition to non-believers.

Reference: Tere mukh ke gulistan ki agar hooran mein shohrat ho/To har ik mast ho kar chhod gulzar-e-Iram nikle (Vali Deccani), Paaon jannat mein na rakkha tha ke tan se nikli rooh/Bekasi ne ro diya munh dekh kar Shaddad ka (Anonymous).

Iram, or Iram of the Pillars, is a mythical city that had to bear the onslaughts of a divine wrath which came as punishment to the people of Aad. It happened because the people disregarded a prophet’s call to follow the path of one God. As a consequence of their disobedience, they had to face eight days and seven nights of sandstorm to the extent that their entire city, with its lofty pillars, got buried under the sand. Later, this lost civilization found its way into the folklores of several cultures. While scholars have long debated the presence of an actual city like this, others believe that it relates with the “Lost city of Atlantis”.

With this also goes the story of an oppressive king called Shaddad who was the son of Aad. Shaddad was fully drunk on his power and pelf and refused to accept the prophet’s call to Islamic faith. Instead, he claimed that he himself was a god and that there was no god other than him. He got a well-decorated heaven made to counter the promised heaven as preached by the prophet. When his heaven was ready, he set out to inspect it finally but his soul was strangled by the angel of death on the way and he could not reach there. This story of his false pride is referred to in the Quran (Sura 89) as an admonition to non-believers.

Reference: Tere mukh ke gulistan ki agar hooran mein shohrat ho/To har ik mast ho kar chhod gulzar-e-Iram nikle (Vali Deccani), Paaon jannat mein na rakkha tha ke tan se nikli rooh/Bekasi ne ro diya munh dekh kar Shaddad ka (Anonymous).