In Quran, Allah said “And Ad, Tamood, the people of Rass and many generations between them? For everyone, we set a similitude and each destroyed utterly (Chapter 25 “Al-Furqan” Verses 38-39). Next in chapter 50, “Qaf”, Allah said, “Before them, the people of Noh rejected the people of Rass and Tamood, Ad and Pharaoh and the brethren of Lot and the dwellers of the Al-Aikah and the people of Tubba. Each one rejected the messengers,and so my threat was fulfilled (Chapter “Kaf” Verses 12-14).
Who were Ashab-al-Rass and which area did they belong to? If we look at the advanced civilisations of the world during that period, we shall come to know that there is only one civilisation: “Mohenjo-Daro”, which had an abundance of wells.
Every house had a well, and there was a proper system of sewerage. Even after five thousand years, if we dig these wells, we can get water.
The original city was situated on a mound. When we observed ruins of “Mohenjo-Daro”, we came to know that this area had submerged in the earth.
In the past when invaders invaded an area, they used to destruct and burn the properties. But there is no sign of destruction in Mohenjo-Daro, which means that no foreign invaders attacked the area.
If we see according to the Islamic point of view, it is possible that almighty Allah might have destroyed this area. Almighty Allah sent about one lac and twenty-four thousand prophets for the welfare of the humanity in different regions and different ages. In “Tafhemul-Quran”, Allama Maududi explained that “in the Arabic language, ‘Rass’ means an old well. It can be guessed there was a nation who killed its Prophet by throwing or hanging him in well”. Other scholars like Ibn-Jarir, Ibn Asakar etc agree that Allah had destroyed Ashab-al-Rass before Moses (AS) period and the name of the prophet of Ashab-al-Rass was Huzlah Ibn Safwan (AS).
On the other side, the archaeologists and historians say that it is not necessary that Allah punished any nation by imposing storm, rain of stones, famine or by turning humans into a monkey. There are many other punishments because in Holy Quran Allah says, “When any nation does not act upon teaching and principles of my prophets and kill my prophets, I impose the better people and better nation on them.”
The downfall period of Mohenjo-Daro spanned from 2500BC to 1800BC, which is also the period of Moses (AS) – 2000 B.C (according to Jews’ holy scripts).
We can conclude that the people of Mohenjo-Daro can be “Ashab-al-Rass”.