Surah Hud 11:61-68 - Quran Translation Commentary

(11:61) And (We sent) to Thamud their brother Salih. He said, ‘My people. Worship Allah. You have no other god besides He. It is He who brought you out of the earth and granted you a long life in it.⁷⁰ Therefore, seek His forgiveness and then turn to Him in repentance. Surely, my Lord is Near, Responsive.'

(11:62) They said, ‘O Salih! You have been amongst us a promising man before this.⁷¹ Do you forbid us that we worship what our forefathers worshiped? Indeed, we are in doubt concerning what you invite us to in (grave) disquiet.

(11:63) He replied, ‘My people! Have you considered? If I happen to be on a clear (path) from my Lord, and He accorded me mercy from Himself, who will then defend me against Allah if I disobeyed Him? You will, therefore, cause me increase in nothing except loss.⁷²

(11:64) And O my people! This is Allah's she camel: for you a sign.⁷³ So, let her alone to feed on Allah's earth (freely). Do not touch her with evil, or a swift punishment will overtake you.'

(11:65) But they hamstrung her. So he said, ‘Enjoy yourself in your dwellings for three days. This is a promise that will not be proven false.'

(11:66) So, when Our command came, We rescued Salih and those who had believed with him by Our grace - (as also) from the humiliation of that day. Surely, your Lord is Strong, Mighty.⁷⁴

(11:67) And a (mighty) cry seized those who had wronged,⁷⁵ so that by morning (they lay) in their homes fallen dead.

(11:68) As if they never dwelt there. Lo! Thamud surely disbelieved in their Lord. Lo! Away with Thamud.

Commentary

70. By the particle “it” the reference is not to the earth as a whole, rather to the Thamud lands (Au).

71. Majid reproduces the mournful cry of another bleeding heart, prefacing it with his own comment: “With the sense of regret, curiously similar, and a sentiment almost identical, over what might have been does a modern Christian speak of the holy Prophet: ‘Had Muhammad, stern to his early convictions, followed the leading of Jewish and Christian truth, and inculcated upon himself their simple doctrine, there might have been a ‘saint Muhammad,’ more likely a ‘Muhammad the Martyr,’ laying the foundation stone of the ‘Arabian Church.' (Muir, op. cit. Intro. p. xcviii).”

72. Asad has something quite pertinent to say, not so much for the unbelievers, as the believers: “Although this dialogue is related in the context of the story of Salih (asws) and the leaders of the Thamud, its implications have as is always the case with Qur'anic stories and parables a universal, timeless import. The stress here is on the intrinsic impossibility of reconciling belief in the One God, whose omniscience and omnipotence embraces all that exists, with an attribution of divine or semi divine qualities and functions to anyone or anything else. The subtly veiled suggestion of the Thamud .. and its rejection by Salih has a bearing on all religious attitudes based on a desire to ‘bring God closer to man’ through the interpretation of alleged ‘mediators’ between Him and man. In primitive religions, this interposition led the deification of various forces of nature and, subsequently, to the invention of imaginary deities which were thought to act against the background of an undefined, dimly perceived Supreme Power (for instance, the Moira of the ancient Greeks). In higher religious concepts, this need for mediation assumes the form of personified manifestations of God through subordinate deities (as is the case, in Hindus, with personifications of the Absolute Brahma of the Upanishads and the Vedanta in the forms of Vishnu or Shiva), or in His supposed incarnation in human form (as represented in the Christian idea of Jesus as ‘God's son’ and the Second Person of the Trinity). And, lastly, God is supposedly ‘brought closer to man’ by the interposition of hierarchy of saints, living or dead, whose intercession is sought even by people who consider themselves to be ‘monotheists’ and this includes many misguided Muslims who do not realize that their belief in saints as ‘mediators’ between man and God conflicts with the very essence of Islam. The ever recurring Qur'anic stress on the oneness and uniqueness of God, and the categorical denial of the idea that anyone or anything whether it be a concrete being or an abstract force could have the least share in God's qualities or the least influence on the manner in which He governs the universe aims at freeing man from the self imposed servitude to an imaginary hierarchy of ‘mediating powers’, and at making him realize that ‘wherever you turn, there is God's countenance’ (2: 115), and that God is ‘[always} near, [to the call of whosoever calls unto Him]’ (2: 186; also, in a condensed form, in verse 61 of this Surah).”

73. She bore a number of signs: She was brought out of a rock, she was pregnant without the touch of a male, she alone drank off all the water of a well, and, she yielded a very large amount of milk (Razi).

74. Jarir b. `Abdullah has said that when the Prophet passed by the Hijr area (where the Thamud dwelt) he said,

لا تسألوا الآيات فقد سألها قوم صالح فكانت - يعني الناقة - ترد من هذا الفج وتصدر من هذا الفج فعتوا عن أمر ربهم فعقروها وكانت تشرب ماءهم يوماً ويشربون لبنها يوماً فعقروها فأخذتهم صيحة أهمد الله من تحت أديم السماء منهم إلا رجلاً واحداً كان في حرم الله" فقالوا: من هو يا رسول الله ؟ قال: "أبو رغال فلما خرج من الحرم أصابه ما أصاب قومه" وهذا الحديث ليس في شيء من الكتب الستة وهو على شرط مسلم (ابن كثير)

ADo not ask your Messenger for signs. Salih's people asked for a sign, so Allah sent them a camel. It used to come from this glen and go out from that glen. But they rebelled against the command of their Lord and hamstrung her. She used to drink their water one day and they used to drink its milk another day. When they hamstrung her, a Cry seized them which destroyed everyone under their sky except for a single man who was in the Haram.” They asked, “Who was he, Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “That was Abu Rughal. When he came out of the Haram, he was struck by what his people had been struck.”

Ibn Kathir remarks that although this hadith is not in any of the six hadith collections, it meets with the conditions set by Muslim.

Another report coming through Ibn `Umar transmits him as saying,

لَا تَدْخُلُوا مَسَاكِنَ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُمْ إِلَّا أَنْ تَكُونُوا بَاكِينَ أَنْ يُصِيبَكُمْ مِثْلُ مَا أَصَابَهُمْ

“Do not enter the dwellings of those who wrong their own souls, unless you are weeping, lest that befalls you what befell them” (Ibn Jarir).

The above is in Bukhari (Au.).

75. At another place the Qur'an has said that they were seized by a massive quake (7: 78).

{فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الرَّجْفَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا فِي دَارِهِمْ جَاثِمِينَ} [الأعراف: 78]

Perhaps a massive earthquake accompanied by a huge blast was the cause of their destruction (Ma`arif). According to modern scholars, the “rajfah” of the text refers to the shaking caused by sound waves. It might be noted that bombs actually release high energy at high frequency – turned into sound waves, which demolish building far away, as in the case of atomic bombs (Au.).