In the previous verse Allah (swt) mentions the crime of ‘Ad and Thamud. Their crime is the same, but their punishment is different. Allah (swt) mentions first the punishment of Thamud that they were destroyed by the overpowering blast. In another verse, Allah (swt) mentions that they were punished by a storm of stones:

 وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ أَخَذَتْهُ الصَّيْحَةُ

(and among them were those upon whom We sent a storm of stones) (Al-Ankaboot: 40)

Another verse states that people of Thamud were punished by the earthquake:

 فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الرَّجْفَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا فِي دَارِهِمْ جَاثِمِينَ

(So the earthquake seized them, and they became within their home [corpses] fallen prone.) (Al-A’raf: 78)

Allah (swt) states that the people of Thamud were punished by three kinds of punishments: a blast, a storm of stones and an earthquake; this punishment kept them in their situations; standing, sitting or lying down. In another verse, this punishment is called “thunderbolt”, Allah (swt) says:

 فَإِنْ أَعْرَضُوا فَقُلْ أَنذَرْتُكُمْ صَاعِقَةً مِّثْلَ صَاعِقَةِ عَادٍ وَثَمُودَ

(But if they turn away, then say, “I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt [that struck] ‘Aad and Thamud.) (Fussilat: 13)

These four kinds of punishments express one status that they fell down motionless on their knees and foreheads. Allah (swt) describes their status after they were affected by The Blast:

 إِنَّا أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ صَيْحَةً وَاحِدَةً فَكَانُوا كَهَشِيمِ الْمُحْتَظِرِ

(Indeed, We sent upon them one blast from the sky, and they became like the dry twig fragments of an [animal] pen.) (Al-Qamar: 31)

The crushed and rotten bodies of the people of Thamud have been compared to the trampled and trodden twigs and pieces of bush lying around an enclosure for cattle.

(  بِالطَّاغِيَةِ… ) (…the overpowering [blast]): The Arabic word indicates what exceeds the limits. Thus, the blast with which Thamud were punished was above what the human being can bear.