Appearance
Verses 61–68
This series of verses discusses the story of the prophet Ṣāliḥ and his people, Thamūd. He was the third of the prophets sent by God to preach monotheism and stand up against idolatry. He called the people of Thamūd to believe in One God and endured hardship and adversity for His sake, until God judged between him and them and sentenced them to destruction, while saving Ṣāliḥ and the believers who were with him.
وَإِلَىٰ ثَمُودَ أَخَاهُمْ صَالِحًا ۚ قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مَا لَكُمْ مِنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُ ۖ هُوَ أَنْشَأَكُمْ مِنَ الْأَرْضِ وَاسْتَعْمَرَكُمْ فِيهَا فَاسْتَغْفِرُوهُ ثُمَّ تُوبُوا إِلَيْهِ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّي قَرِيبٌ مُجِيبٌ ٦١
(11:61) And to Thamūd, their brother Ṣāliḥ. He said, ‘O my people! Worship Allah. You have no other god besides Him. He brought you forth from the earth and made it your habitation. So plead with Him for forgiveness, then turn to Him penitently. My Lord is indeed nearmost responsive.’
We have already discussed the style of this verse’s beginning in our commentary on the story of Hūd, above (And to ʿĀd, their brother Hūd—).
Ṣāliḥ tells his people, ‘He brought you forth (anshaʾakum) from the earth and made it your habitation (istaʿmara-kum fī-hā).’ Al-Rāghib says: ‘The verb inshāʾ means to bring something into being and to nurture it, and it is mostly used in relation to living creatures. See, for example the verse: It is He who created you (anshaʾa-kum), and made for you hearing, eyesight … ().’ He also says: ‘ʿImāra (‘building, habitation’, from whence the verb istaʿmara is derived) is the opposite of kharāb (‘ruin’). One might say ʿammara arḍa-hu (‘he built on his land’). To see the nuances of this word’s meaning, consider the verses: … the maintenance (ʿimāra) of the Holy Mosque …(); … they ploughed the earth and developed it more than they have developed it (ʿamarū-hā akthar mimmā ʿamarū-hā) … (); … by the House erected (al-bayt al-maʿmūr) … (); and … made it your habitation (istaʿmara-kum fī-hā) ().’ Therefore, ʿimāra means to transform the land into a state in which its expected benefits can be reaped, like developing a house for living, a mosque for worship, a field for cultivation, an orchard for harvesting its fruits and relaxing in, and istiʿmār denotes the pursuit of making the earth habitable and beneficial for human beings.
Based on the above, the meaning of His saying, ‘He brought you forth from the earth and made it your habitation’—which is phrased in such a way as to imply exclusivity—is: ‘God is the One who created these entities known as a humans from earthly matter and then completed their development gradually. He instilled in them the instinct to work the earth and transform it into a state that benefits them in their lives and, through this, they can satisfy their needs and overcome their deficiencies. In other words, you need nothing for your existence and survival except for God Almighty.’
Therefore, when Ṣāliḥ says, ‘He brought you forth from the earth and made it your habitation’, this is an argument to support the message he delivered to them when he said, ‘O my people! Worship Allah. You have no other god besides Him …’ In fact, this sentence is presented as if in response to a question, namely: ‘Why should we worship Him alone?’ To which he answered: ‘Because He brought you forth from the earth and made it your habitation.’
This is because they used to worship idols and raise them up as partners besides God, thinking—wrongly—that God was too exalted to be comprehended by them, too high to be reached by their worship or to respond to their prayers and supplications. They believed that humans needed mediators to reach God, so they worshipped some of His noble creations, who they believed God had entrusted with the affairs of this earthly world and the systems within it. They sought to propitiate these mediators in order that they might gain their favor and avoid their wrath, thus securing blessings and warding off harm. They believed that these divine intermediaries were their intercessors with God, as he was the God of Gods and Lord of Lords, to whom all matters ultimately return.
As we have already discussed, idolatry is founded on severing the relationship between God and humans, and establishing it between humans and these noble intermediaries, to whom they turn with their needs and requests. These intermediaries are seen as independent from God in their power, and as intercessors with Him on behalf of human beings.
However, since God is the One who created humans from the earth and settled them in it, He has a close relationship with humans. There is no independence for any of the causes and processes that He has created and set in motion in this world, from which we hope to obtain good by pleasing them or fear being harmed by if we anger them.
Therefore, it is God alone who should be worshipped and, by doing so, His pleasure is sought and His wrath is avoided. This is because He is the creator of man and everything else that exists and the one who manages all the affairs of the world. When He says, “. He brought you forth from the earth and made it your habitation, this leads the audience to deduce that there is, in fact, a relationship between God and human beings, and that there is no agents or causes in existence that are independent of him.
This is why Ṣāliḥ says immediately after this, ‘So plead with Him for forgiveness, then turn to Him penitently. My Lord is indeed nearmost and responsive.’ This is the conclusion he draws from the previous statement. In other words: ‘If God is the one you must worship and abandon all others because He is your Creator and the one who manages your life’s affairs, then you must ask Him to forgive you for the sin of worshipping others besides Him and return to Him with faith in Him and worship. He is close and responsive.’
Note that when he says, ‘My Lord is nearmost and responsive’, he is providing a rationale for why they should turn to God. This is because he has already demonstrated that God is the one who creates man, nurtures him, and manages his life affairs, and that none of the causes that operate in the universe are independent of Him. Rather, it is God Almighty who directs the entirety of the cosmic order. He is the one who stands between man and his needs and all of the worldly causes that play a role therein. Contrary to the claim of the idolaters that God is beyond their comprehension and cannot be reached by worship and offerings, God is, in fact, close to the human being. And if He is close, He is responsive. And if He is close and responsive and He is God and there is no god besides Him, then it is obligatory to seek His forgiveness and repent to Him.
قَالُوا يَا صَالِحُ قَدْ كُنْتَ فِينَا مَرْجُوًّا قَبْلَ هَٰذَا ۖ أَتَنْهَانَا أَنْ نَعْبُدَ مَا يَعْبُدُ آبَاؤُنَا وَإِنَّنَا لَفِي شَكٍّ مِمَّا تَدْعُونَا إِلَيْهِ مُرِيبٍ ٦٢
(11:62) They said, ‘O Ṣāliḥ! You were a source of hope to us (qad kunta fī-nā marjuwwan) before this. Do you forbid us to worship what our fathers have been worshipping? Indeed we have grave doubts concerning that to which you invite us.’
When one has hope in a person, it is never in terms of his being but in terms of his actions and achievements, and one does not hope for anything other than something good or beneficial coming from them. Therefore, when Ṣāliḥ’s people say that he was a source of hope for them, this means that they expected him to be a person of wisdom and excellence, both in himself and in his household, and that goodness and benefit would flow from him to them. The fact that they say qad kunta fī-nā (‘you were … to us’) shows that he was a source of hope to the majority of them.
Therefore, when they say, ‘O Ṣāliḥ! You were a source of hope to us before this’, it means that the people of Thamūd had hoped that Ṣāliḥ would be an upstanding member of their community, who would benefit them through his dedication and service, and lead them along the path of progress and success, precisely because they saw the signs of wisdom and excellence in him. However, when he began preaching his message of monotheism, this dashed their hopes and diminished their opinion of him, because they believed he was attempting to change their communal way of life with new-fangled ideas of his own devising.
This is reflected in their complaint, ‘Do you forbid us to worship what our fathers worship?’, which is a rhetorical question conveying the meaning of rebuke and disapproval. In fact, this complaint explains why they lost hope in him: Because he forbade them from following the tradition of their forefathers and sought to erase one of the most visible aspects of their identity. Worshipping idols was a sacred tradition within their society, and they believed that the preservation of such sacred traditions in a society was a sign that this society has a proud heritage, a unified identity, and integrity in its values and opinions.
The evidence for what this can be found in the complaint: ‘Do you forbid us to worship what our fathers worship?’ Notice that they did not say: ‘Do you forbid us from worshipping what our fathers worshipped?’ Instead, they used the present tense ‘…what our fathers worship?’ The difference in meaning between these two expressions is clear, as by using the present-tense verb ‘worship’, the question itself links their worship to that of their ancestors and shows that this worship is continuous and uninterrupted from one generation to the next.
From this point, it is apparent that the explanation put forward by some scholars, such as Rāshid Riḍā in al-Manār and others, to the effect that the statement, ‘Do you forbid us to worship what our fathers worship?’ is equivalent in meaning to ‘…what our fathers used to worship?’, is erroneous.
‘Indeed we have grave doubts (inna-nā la-fī shakkun … murīb) concerning that to which you invite us’: This is their second reason for rejecting Ṣāliḥ’s message. Their first reason was that the renunciation of idol worship represented an abhorrent innovation that would have destroyed the sacred traditions of Thamūd, undermined the harmony of their society, and destroyed their heritage. Therefore, they said they had no choice but to reject it. The second reason they give for rejecting Ṣāliḥ’s message is that he has not presented any conclusive evidence that would dispel their doubts and convinced them of his truthfulness. Therefore, they say that they are in grave doubt about what he invites them to—the implication being that they should not accept his teachings if they harbour doubts about them.
Irāba (from whence the active participle murīb is derived) means to harbour suspicions about a person. One might say, ‘Such-and-such causes me to suspect him’ (rāba-nī min-hu kadhā) if the person has given the speaker grounds to suspect or mistrust him.
قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ أَرَأَيْتُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُ عَلَىٰ بَيِّنَةٍ مِنْ رَبِّي وَآتَانِي مِنْهُ رَحْمَةً فَمَنْ يَنْصُرُنِي مِنَ اللَّهِ إِنْ عَصَيْتُهُ ۖ فَمَا تَزِيدُونَنِي غَيْرَ تَخْسِيرٍ ٦٣
(11:63) He said, ‘O my people! Tell me, should I stand on a manifest proof (bayyina) from my Lord, and He has granted me His own mercy (raḥma), who will protect me from Allah should I disobey Him? For then you will increase me in nothing but loss.
The meaning of bayyina (‘manifest proof’) here is a miracle, while raḥma (‘mercy’) refers to the station of prophethood. We have already discussed a similar verse in our commentary on the story of Noah, earlier in the chapter (see ).
Therefore, when Ṣāliḥ says, ‘who will protect me from Allah should I disobey Him?’ This is a conditional statement, which gives the general meaning: ‘Tell me, if I am supported by a miraculous sign that demonstrates the truth of my call, and if God has bestowed upon me a divine message and commanded me to convey it, then who could save me from God and fend off His punishment if I obey your instructions and acquiesce to your demands, namely to abandon my mission?’ Thus, the statement provides a response to both their arguments and a defence against their accusations that his message was something of his own devising.
When Ṣāliḥ says, ‘For then you will increase me in nothing but loss’, this is the conclusion he draws from his previous statement, in which he refuted their two arguments (that his call was something of his own devising and that he had not brought them any conclusive proof for his claims) and defended his decision to preach a message that was contrary to their communal traditions. Therefore, the meaning of this statement is: ‘You are not encouraging to abandon my mission, return the fold, and re-join your faith, except to cause me loss. For anything contrary to the truth can only be a loss.’
Another reading of this is: ‘Your statement, ‘Do you forbid us to worship what our fathers worship?’ does nothing but confirm in my mind that you are in state of loss.’ Yet another reading is: ‘You do nothing except increase my insight into your loss.’ However, the first interpretation is the most probable.
وَيَا قَوْمِ هَٰذِهِ نَاقَةُ اللَّهِ لَكُمْ آيَةً فَذَرُوهَا تَأْكُلْ فِي أَرْضِ اللَّهِ وَلَا تَمَسُّوهَا بِسُوءٍ فَيَأْخُذَكُمْ عَذَابٌ قَرِيبٌ ٦٤
(11:64) O my people! This she-camel of Allah is a sign for you. Let her graze freely in Allah’s land, and do not cause her any harm, for then you shall be seized by a prompt punishment.’
The fact that the verse attributes the she-camel to God is an honorific attribution, similar to ‘the House of God’ and ‘the Book of God.’ The she-camel was a miraculous sign given to Ṣāliḥ to support his claim of prophethood. He brought it forth from the rock of the mountain by God’s permission and told them that she had to be allowed to graze freely in God’s land and warned them against causing her any harm, meaning, to hurt her by striking, wounding, or killing her. Then he informed them that if they did harm her, a rapid and imminent punishment would seize them. This is the meaning of the verse.
فَعَقَرُوهَا فَقَالَ تَمَتَّعُوا فِي دَارِكُمْ ثَلَاثَةَ أَيَّامٍ ۖ ذَٰلِكَ وَعْدٌ غَيْرُ مَكْذُوبٍ٦٥
(11:65) But they hamstrung her, whereupon he said, ‘Enjoy yourselves in your abode (dār) for three days: that is a promise not to be belied!’
Hamstringing the she-camel means that they slaughtered her. A dār is a place that a person builds and lives in, where they and their family find shelter. The ‘abode’ referred to in the verse is the city in which they lived. The verse calls it an ‘abode’ because its people were gathered within it just as a family gather in their abode. Some have suggested that the word ‘abode’, refers to the abode of this world. However, this is an unlikely meaning, given the context.
When Ṣāliḥ tells them to enjoy themselves in their abode, this means that they should go on living their lives and indulging in whatever they like, because the life of this world is a brief enjoyment. Or he might mean that they should enjoy whatever blessings they have amassed in it, such as pleasing appearances, furnishings, food, drink, and indulge in their base desires.
When he says, ‘that is a promise not to be belied!’, the demonstrative pronoun ‘that’ refers to ‘Enjoy yourselves in your abode for three days’, and the phrase is a clarification of what he means by this.
فَلَمَّا جَاءَ أَمْرُنَا نَجَّيْنَا صَالِحًا وَالَّذِينَ آمَنُوا مَعَهُ بِرَحْمَةٍ مِنَّا وَمِنْ خِزْيِ يَوْمِئِذٍ ۗ إِنَّ رَبَّكَ هُوَ الْقَوِيُّ الْعَزِيزُ ٦٦
(11:66) So when Our edict came, We delivered Ṣāliḥ and the faithful who were with him by a mercy from Us, and from the disgrace of that day. Your Lord is indeed the All-strong, the All-mighty.
We have already discussed the meaning of the passage, when Our edict came, We delivered Ṣāliḥ and the faithful who were with him by a mercy from Us, in our commentary on a similar verse that occurs in the story of Hūd in this chapter (see ).
The phrase, and from the disgrace of that day, should be understood as being paired with an implicit object, with the intended meaning being: ‘We saved them from the punishment and from the disgrace of that day.’ Here, ‘disgrace’ refers to the shameful event that exposes one’s disgrace, leading to feelings of embarrassment or dishonor. Alternatively, it could mean ‘We saved them from the people and from the disgrace of that day’, in a similar vein to the verse, … and deliver me from the wrongdoing lot ().
Your Lord is indeed the All-strong, the All-mighty provides a rationale for the earlier part of the verse. It also represents a shift in speech from speaking in the third person to direct address. A similar verse appears at the end of the story of Hūd, Indeed ʿĀd defied their Lord …, in that both of these verses highlight the divine attribute of Lordship, indicating that they had forsaken the mantle divine servanthood that had been placed upon them and, in doing so, denied God’s lordship and shown ingratitude for the blessings of their Lord.
وَأَخَذَ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا الصَّيْحَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا فِي دِيَارِهِمْ جَاثِمِينَ ٦٧
(11:67) The Cry seized those who were wrongdoers, and they lay lifeless prostrate (jāthimīn) in their homes
Jāthimīn (‘prostrate’) means that they had fallen on their faces. The remainder of the verse’s meaning is clear.
كَأَنْ لَمْ يَغْنَوْا فِيهَا ۗ أَلَا إِنَّ ثَمُودَ كَفَرُوا رَبَّهُمْ ۗ أَلَا بُعْدًا لِثَمُودَ ٦٨
(11:68) as if they had never lived therein (ka-an lam yaghnaw fī-hā). Look! Indeed Thamūd defied their Lord. Look! Away with Thamūd!
The verb yaghnaw, when used in relation to a place, means to dwell there. And the pronoun ‘therein’ (fī-hā) refers to their homes in the previous verse.
Look! Indeed Thamūd defied their Lord. Look! Away with Thamūd!: As with the story of ʿĀd and the prophet Hūd, this verse summarizes the narrative that precedes it. The first sentence summarizes the state of Thamūd and the prophetic mission of Ṣāliḥ, while the second summarizes the recompense they received from God.
Examining Narrations
- In al-Kāfī, it is reported from Abū Baṣīr who narrates from Imām al-Ṣādiq: ‘I asked him about the verse: Thamūd denied the warnings, and they said, ‘Are we to follow a lone human from ourselves?! Indeed then we would be in error and madness’ (). He said: “This refers to their rejection of the prophet Ṣāliḥ. God never destroys a people without first sending messengers to warn them.
So, God sent Ṣāliḥ to them. They did not respond to his preaching and instead became obstinate. They said, ‘We will not believe you until you cause a pregnant she-camel to come out of this rock.’ This is because they worshipped and venerated the rock, sacrificing to it each year and gathering around it. They said, ‘If you are truly a prophet as you claim, then call upon your God to cause a pregnant she-camel to emerge from this solid rock.’ So, God made the she-camel appear as they had asked.
Then God revealed to Ṣāliḥ: ‘Tell them: God has assigned a drinking day for this she-camel and a drinking day for you.’ So on the she-camel’s drinking day, she would drink all the water and they would all stay back from it, both young and old, and then drink her milk on their day instead. At night, they would go to their water and drink from it on their day, and the she-camel would not drink that day. They continued in this fashion for as long as God willed.
Then they became defiant towards God. One of them said to the others, ‘We should Hamstring this she-camel and be done with her. We cannot accept having a drinking day for us and a drinking day for her.’ Then they said, ‘Who will kill her? We will reward him handsomely.’ A man came forward, a red-skinned, blonde-haired, blue-eyed man of illegitimate birth known as Qidār—one of the most wretched among them—and they promised him a reward should he accomplish this task.
So, when the she-camel went to the water that she would drink, she drank her fill and was returning to graze when Qidār ambushed her on her path. He struck her with his sword, but it did no damage. Then he struck her again and killed her, and she fell dead on her side. Her offspring fled to the mountain and cried out to the sky three times. The people of Ṣāliḥ stood and allowed this to happen, so each one of them shared in the guilt of her killing. They divided her meat among themselves, and not a single one of them, young or old, abstained from eating it.
When Ṣāliḥ saw this, he said to them, ‘What has driven you to do this? Have you disobeyed the command of your Lord?’ Then God revealed to Ṣāliḥ: ‘Your people have transgressed and acted wickedly. They killed the she-camel, whom God sent as a proof to them. She caused them no harm, but she was of great benefit to them. Tell them that I will send my punishment in three days. If they repent and return to the right path, I will accept their repentance and avert the punishment. If they do not repent and return, I will send my punishment on the third day.’
Ṣāliḥ went to them and said, ‘I am a messenger of your Lord. He says: If you repent, return and seek forgiveness, He will forgive you and accept your repentance.’ But when he said this, they responded with the most stubborn and vile words. They said, ‘O Ṣāliḥ, bring us what you promise us if you are truthful!’
He said, ‘O people, tomorrow morning your faces will turn yellow, the next day red, and on the third day black.’ And indeed, on the first day, their faces turned yellow. Some of them went to one another and said, ‘What Ṣāliḥ forewarned has come to pass.’ However, the obstinate amongst them retorted, ‘We will not listen to Ṣāliḥ’s words nor accept them, no matter how momentous they seem.’
On the second day, their faces turned red. Again, some of them reminded each other, ‘What Ṣāliḥ forewarned has come to pass.’ Yet, the obstinate ones among them persisted, ‘Even if we were all to perish, we would not heed Ṣāliḥ’s words. We will not abandon the gods our ancestors worshipped.’ They did not repent or turn back.
On the third day, their faces turned black. Once more, some of them approached each other, saying, ‘What Ṣāliḥ foretold has surely come.’ This time, even the obstinate ones had to admit, ‘What Ṣāliḥ foretold to us has indeed happened.’
At midnight, the Angel Gabriel came to them. He issued a scream that shattered their eardrums, split their hearts, and ruptured their livers. In those three days, they had shrouded themselves for burial, for they knew all too well that punishment was about to descend. In a blink of an eye, they all died, young and old. Not a single person remained to mourn or tend to the dead; everything was destroyed by God. They were found dead in their homes and beds. Along with the cry, God sent fire from the sky that incinerated them all, and that was their story.’”’
Author’s comment: This narration includes some extraordinary details, such as people all drinking the milk of the camel and their faces changing colors day by day—although these are not problematic in of themselves given the miraculous context in which they occur. The Qurʾan affirms this context, as it was known that the camel had a specific drinking day and the entire town had their own designated day for drinking as well.
As for the cry coming from Gabriel, it does not contradict the idea that it was a celestial bolt that descended upon them, killing them with its sound and burning them with its fire. There is nothing to preclude attributing an extraordinary or natural event to the actions of an angel if it falls within its mandate, just as all worldly events like death, life, and sustenance among others are attributed to the tasks of various angels.
As for the Imām’s saying that they had shrouded themselves for burial in those three days, this could be read as a figure of speech signifying their readiness for death. Some of the narrations we have that describe the she-camel say that it was a mile wide, which weakens the narrative not due to its impossibility—since its existence was due to a miracle—but because, considering the proportions of a camels body, this would suggest its hump reached a height of almost three miles. It would be inconceivable, then, for a person to kill it with a sword, and this was not a miraculous feat performed by the one who hamstrung the camel. Nevertheless, the fact that God says, This is a she-camel; she shall drink and you shall drink on known days, suggests that her body was of incredible size.
Discourse
The discussion “On the Story of Ṣāliḥ” appears here in the printed volume. Read it in the Al-Mizan App.