Surah Al-A'raf 7:130-141 - Quran Translation Commentary

(7:131) But, whenever a good (thing) came to them, they said, ‘This is our due.' But when an evil touched them they would augur ill by Musa and those with him.¹⁸⁰ Nay! Rather their ill augury was with Allah;¹⁸¹ but most of them realized not.¹⁸²

(7:132) And they said, ‘Whatever sign you may bring us to cast a spell upon us therewith, we are not going to believe in you.'

(7:133) So, We let loose on them flood,¹⁸³ the locusts,¹⁸⁴ the lice,¹⁸⁵ the frogs,¹⁸⁶ and (water turning into) blood:¹⁸⁷ signs distinct.¹⁸⁸ But they waxed proud. They were indeed a criminal people.

(7:134) Whensoever a wrath fell upon them they cried out: ‘O Musa. Supplicate to your Lord by what He has promised you: If you release us from this wrath, we shall believe in you and shall let go with you the Children of Israel.'

(7:135) But when We relieved them of the wrath until a term they were to achieve, behold, they went back (on their word).¹⁸⁹

(7:136) So We took vengeance on them and drowned them in the sea¹⁹⁰ for that they cried lies to our signs and were heedless of them.

(7:137) And We bequeathed upon the people that were reduced weak,¹⁹¹ the eastern and western parts of the land in which We have placed Our blessings.¹⁹² And thus was fulfilled the good word from your Lord upon the Children of Israel for what they endured patiently;¹⁹³ and We destroyed the works of Fir`awn and his people, and what they had been building.¹⁹⁴

(7:138) And We led the Children of Israel across the sea. They came upon a people zealously devoted to their idols.¹⁹⁵ They said, ‘O Musa. Assign for us a deity as they have deities.'¹⁹⁶ He said, ‘Verily, you are an ignorant people.¹⁹⁷

(7:139) As for these people, bound to destruction is all that they indulge in, and wasteful all that they have been doing.'

(7:140) He asked, ‘Shall I seek for you a god other than Allah when He preferred you over the worlds?'

(7:141) (Recall) when We delivered you from Fir`awn's folks who afflicted you with the worst kind of torture, slaughtering your sons and letting your women live. And, indeed, in that was for you a severe trial from your Lord.

Commentary

178. Rashid Rida comments on the textual word "'al" (tr. as folks), that originally, the word stood for a nation's individuals of grace and honor such as, Prophets, kings and elders. Eventually, it came to be used for distinctive individuals and, subsequently, for the common people too. This is the basis of the opinion of the scholars of Islam that "'aal al Nabiyy" would include all those who follow him. It is in this sense that the word "'aal al Nabiyy" has been used in the tashahhud viz.,

اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ ، وَعَلَى آلِ مُحَمَّدٍ

“O Allah, send peace upon Muhammad and upon the folks of Muhammad.”

However, not every follower of the Prophet is included in the term by default. Imam Ja`far al Sadiq was told: "People say that the whole of the Ummah of the Prophet is included in the term "'aal al Nabiyy. Is that correct?" He replied: "They lied while they spoke the truth. They lied when they said that the whole of his Ummah is included in the term. But they spoke the truth if they meant to include those who follow the Shari`ah closely."

179. A stricter meaning of "thamaraat" would include all kinds of produce, be they agricultural or industrial (Au.).

Sayyid Qutb writes: "When a man's true nature is disfigured then he cannot see Allah's hand behind the events happening around him. He severs the links between events and events, bereft of any relationship with the One who runs and controls the universe. So that, the only thing that a Khrushchev, (former Russian President) could say when faced up with years of crop failure, was, "Nature seems to be against us!"

180. Whenever something good happened at the national level, they would take the credit for it themselves. But when an ill fortune struck them they would say, ‘Since the time Musa has appeared we have been facing one problem after another' (Ibn Jarir).

Asad adds: "The phrase tatayyara bihi signifies ‘he attributed an evil omen to him’ or ‘he augured evil from him.’ It is based on the pre Islamic Arab custom of divining the future or establishing an omen from the flight of birds. Thus, the noun tair (lit. ‘a flying creature’ or ‘a bird’) is often used in classical Arabic to denote ‘destiny’ or ‘fortune’, both good and evil."

The drawing of omen from the flight of birds consisted in disturbing a bird in its nest or perched on a branch. If it flew off toward the right, it was taken as a good sign. But if it flew towards the left, it was taken as an evil sign (Sayyid). The Prophet has said in a Sahih hadith

:

لَا طِيَرَةَ وَلَا عَدْوَى

"There is no such thing as drawing an omen from the birds, nor any such thing as contagion" (Au.).

Islam has rather left the outcome to proper application, good intention, hard work, etc., that result in the manifestation of Allah's Decree (Sayyid).

This author has had the experience in his childhood in a north-Indian village of some Muslims clapping their hands to make a bird fly to decide whether one of them should travel or not.

181. That is, whatever visited them, whether good or adversity, was all from Allah Ibn `Abbas (Ibn Jarir).

182. Qurtubi writes: The Prophet has said:

الطِّيَرَةُ شِرْكٌ وَمَا مِنَّا إِلاَّ وَلَكِنَّ اللَّهَ عَزَّ وَجَلَّ يُذْهِبُهُ بِالتَّوَكُّلِ

"Drawing bad an omen is a (kind of) shirk, and each of us has (something of it in his heart). But Allah cures it with trust in Him."

The report is in Abu Da'ud. According to another report, if someone finds that in his heart, he should say:

اللَّهُمَّ لاَ يَأْتِى بِالْحَسَنَاتِ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ وَلاَ يَدْفَعُ السَّيِّئَاتِ إِلاَّ أَنْتَ وَلاَ حَوْلَ وَلاَ قُوَّةَ إِلاَّ بِكَ

"O Allah. None comes with the good but You, and none removes the evil but You. There is no power but with You." Then, after that, let the man proceed with whatever he wishes to do, with faith and trust in Allah.

183. The textual word "tufan" has been variously interpreted by Ibn `Abbas, Mujahid and others as death, floods, plague, or any general calamity resulting in wide scale death and destruction (Ibn Jarir).

184. Ibn Kathir quotes several ahadith to prove that consumption of locusts is lawful in Islam, although the Prophet did not eat it, just as he avoided eating meat of the dubb. His wives, however, used to send across platefuls of it as gift. `Umar ibn al Khattab too seems to have been fond of locusts.

Locusts were apparently lawful for the Jews. Ch. 1, verse 6 of Luke says: "And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey" (Au.).

185. The textual word "qummal" is for any little wingless insect. It would include lice, pests that attack the grain, fleas, bed-bugs, etc. According to a statement of Sa`id b. Jubayr, it was a little insect that ate off the wheat from within, so that when ground, they got nothing out of it. Suddi however has said that it were insects that filled everything: their grain, food, clothes kind of omnipresent (Ibn Jarir).

Majid comments: "This particular plague was eminently fitted to work upon the Egyptian abhorrence of impurity and defilement. ‘The Egyptians had an intense hatred of lice, and looked upon them as so impure that the priests were required to shave their entire bodies in order that no louse or other impure creature might adhere to them' (Rawlinson, Moses: His Life and Times)."

186. In trustworthy reports preserved by Abu Da'ud, Ibn Majah and others, the Prophet has forbidden killing of: "Sarad (a kind of bird that preys on sparrows), frogs, ants and hoopoe" (Qurtubi).

Majid quotes from Rawlinson's Moses, His Life and Times: "One of the Egyptian divinities, Hika, has the head of a frog, and we may presume therefore, that the head of a frog was a sacred animal which it was not lawful to destroy... How could those creatures be Divine which had aroused such hatred and loathing in the hearts of the entire people? How could they henceforth be looked upon without detestation? The whole theory of sacred animals must have suffered a shock when Hika's sacred sign, the emblem of fecundity and productiveness, became an object of hatred and abhorrence."

187. Sa`id Ibn Jubayr and Suddi have said that as soon as fetched by Pharaoh's folk, water turned into blood. Ka`b al Qurazi has said that the trial lasted full seven days (Ibn Jarir).

Majid writes: "This plague coming out of the sacred river Nile must have caused a severe shock to the Nile worshipping Egyptians. ‘That sacred stream, so fondly worshipped as the giver of all good, was the generator of this great evil. Nile, wont to bestow nothing but blessings, brought forth this curse' (Rawlinson, Moses: His Life and Times)."

188. The textual word "mufassilat" can both be rendered as "self evident" as well as "distinct" (Zamakhshari). Their self evidence was strengthened by the fact that they touched only Fir`awn and his subjects. The Israelites did not suffer from them. For example, water remained water for the Israelites but turned into blood once poured out from an Israelite's pitcher into an Egyptian’s pitcher (Ibn Jarir).

Although no detail has come down from the Prophet regarding these signs all being reports of Israeli origin yet, that the signs had to be of the specific kind, was necessary because magic and its effects were nothing new for the Egyptians. Nothing less than "distinct signs" appearing on the national level and disappearing at Musa's supplications, could convince the least skeptic of them that they were miracles of heavenly origin.

How long did Musa tarry in Egypt? We have no authentic reports to this effect. However, Qurtubi has said that Musa lived in Egypt for 20 years from the date of the magicians falling into prostration until the drowning of Fir`awn. This should also explain why Fir`awn and his folks would not believe despite the distinct signs they experienced. That was perhaps because firstly, the signs appeared at long intervals and, secondly, they appeared and disappeared gradually, almost in a natural manner to allow skepticism to play its role in leading the disbelievers to disbelief (Au.).

189. Majid writes: "Nakatha (of the text) is to undo the threads of a garment, or to undo, or untwist a rope."

190. The word in the original "al yamm" is for a deep sea (Zamakhshari).

191. The Orientalists have framed an objection against the Prophet by saying that he had no knowledge of history and, therefore, while copying material from the Torah, committed errors. One of such errors is his claim that the Israelites inherited the Egyptian soil after the destruction of Fir`awn and his hosts, although, as Torah tells us, the Israelites actually travelled eastward to settle into Palestine, their promised land, and never went back to Egypt. The scholars of Islam have generally replied that the Qur'an never stated explicitly that the Israelites went back to Egypt. In fact, the present verse does not even give the meaning by implication of a return to Egypt. Yes, there is another passage of the Qur'an that implies that. It says, "So We expelled them from gardens and springs, and treasures and a noble station; even so, and We bequeathed them upon the Children of Israel" (26: 57 59). Nevertheless, on close inspection it will be seen that the Qur'an is talking of the inheritance of "the gardens, springs, treasures and a noble station," and not of those lands that were formerly owned by the Egyptians. Nevertheless, admitted that the allusion is to those that were formerly owned by Egyptians, there is still nothing wrong with the statement since the Israelites, as stated by the Torah, returned to Syria and parts of Syria was then under the Pharaohnic rule.

Again, what is the basis on which it is assumed that the Bible is infallible? Can a single line be quoted that can withstand a historical test?

Regardless of the above, Rashid Rida points out that historical research tells us that there is room for taking the term "inheritance" in the literal sense, viz., of the Israelites going back to Egypt. The most ancient Jewish historian Josephus has been quoted by Lang in his book "Human Origins" as having quoted from another historical work, that of the ancient historian Manetho, who wrote the following words: "After his defeat at the hands of Moses, Pharaoh escaped to Abyssinia and Moses ruled over Egypt for 13 years. Later, Pharaoh and his son returned with a huge army in their command. They overcame the resistance put up by Moses who had to ultimately relinquish (Egypt) and migrate to Syria." This historian Manetho, Rashid Rida adds, whose words have been quoted here, appeared 300 years before Jesus Christ. On Ptolemy Philadalphus's behest, he wrote one of the most accurate histories of the world, relying upon very authentic sources of his time. The book itself is lost. It was burned along with thousands of other manuscripts preserved in the Alexandrian Library leaving its traces only as quotes in other works.

Rashid Rida also writes that it has been speculated by some historians that possibly the death of Fir`awn (contemporary to Moses) was covered up by the Egyptian ruling class who might have told the general populace that he had migrated to Abyssinia and would soon return reinforced with Abyssinian forces. The succeeding Fir`awn (the next in line of succession) might have returned from there after preparations lasting 13 years to wage war against Musa and retake the bulk of the lost kingdom.

192. Hasan and Qatadah have been reported as saying that the allusion by the words ‘the land in which We have placed Our blessings' is to Syria (Ibn Jarir).

Rashid Rida adds: The above is strengthened by several verses of the Qur'an, one of them being (17: 1):

سُبْحَانَ الَّذِي أَسْرَى بِعَبْدِهِ لَيْلًا مِنَ الْمَسْجِدِ الْحَرَامِ إِلَى الْمَسْجِدِ الْأَقْصَى الَّذِي بَارَكْنَا حَوْلَهُ [الإسراء : 1]

"Glorified is He who took His slave by night from the Holy Mosque to the Furthest Mosque the surroundings of which We have blessed."

Alusi points out that the allusion is to the spiritual blessing, as it has been the land of the Prophets. He quotes a hadith from Ahmad. `Abdullah ibn Khawla al Azadi says:

خِرْ لِي يَا رَسُولَ اللَّه ... قال ِعَلَيْكَ بِالشَّامِ فَإِنَّهُ خِيرَةُ اللَّهِ مِنْ أَرْضِهِ يَجْتَبِي إِلَيْهِ خِيرَتَهُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ

"I asked the Prophet, ‘Messenger of Allah, choose for me a land to which I could migrate.' He replied, ‘You might go to Syria, for Allah chose it from His lands to which the best of men are attracted.'"

Shu`ayb Arna’ut declared it trustworthy (Au.).

Another hadith in Ibn `Asakir narrated by Wathilah b. al Asqa` reports the Prophet as having said:

عَلَيْكُمْ بِالشَّامِ، فَإِنَّهَا صَفْوَةُ اللَّهِ مِنْ بِلادِهِ يَسُوقُ إِلَيْهَا صَفْوَتَهُ مِنْ عِبَادِهِ

"Let Syria be your destination for it is the best of Allah's lands in which the best of his slaves live."

(Accordingly, Wathilah ultimately settled and died in Syria (Au.).

Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Tabarani, Ibn Hibban and Hakim (who declared it Sahih) have preserved the following words of the Prophet (saws):

طُوبَى لِلشَّامِ

"Blessedness for Syria."

Hakim has preserved the following words of `Abdullah ibn `Umar, declaring it Sahih: "A time will come upon the people when no Muslim would remain, but would have migrated to Syria."

However, Alusi (himself a Syrian) warns, many ahadith that are quoted about the virtues of Syria are fake, and then discreetly adds that it is not the Syrians who are the subject of these ahadith, who might not be found in Alusi's times – to match up with the desired standards of behavior!

193. Mujahid has said that the allusion is to the advent of Musa and destruction of Fir`awn and his hosts (Ibn Jarir).

Alusi writes: Hasan al Busri has said (in reference to the Muslims’ struggle against their corrupt rulers) that had the people observed patience in the face of their corrupt rulers and sought Allah's succor, they would have had a better chance of getting rid of them. But they took to the sword and depended on it (with no results). To this statement of Hasan al Busri, Alusi adds his own remark: It is my own observation that their 1248 years of resort to the sword (against their rulers) never brought them any good.

The above of course is when Muslims are faced up with corrupt Muslim rulers who have the majority behind them. If they have the support of a minority, or, are non Muslims altogether, then, as Ashraf `Ali wrote under verse 129 above: "Seeking Allah's help and observing patience in the face of the power of the unbelievers, does not necessarily mean resort to asceticism and surrender" (Au.).

194. "The story of the suffering of the Israelites during their bondage in Egypt, their deliverance through Moses, their crossing of the Red Sea (or, more probably, of what today is known as the Gulf of Suez) and the destruction of Pharaoh and his hosts is narrated in considerable detail in the Bible (Exodus i xiv). The Qur'an, on the other hand, does not give us a consecutive narrative: for historical narrative as such is never its purpose. Whenever the Qur'an refers to past events whether recorded in the Bible or alive in Arabian tradition it does so exclusively with a view to bringing out elements that are relevant to the ethical teachings which it propounds" (Asad).

195. Most commentators have said that these people were either Amalekites, or the Lakhm tribe. Majid adds: "Their idols, anyway, were images of oxen, which gave to the Israelites the impetus to the making of the golden calf."

196. In other words, the Israelites sought Musa to suggest a few deities and idols through whose worship they could reach out God better than without (Razi).

197. Baghawi has written that the request for a deity was not because the Israelites were in doubt about the Oneness of God. Their objective was to seek the Lord One God with the help and intercession of something tangible, and was under the belief that the worship of other than Allah with such objectives would do them no harm. This explains Musa's words: "Verily, you are an ignorant people" (Manar, slightly reworded).

Abu Waqid al Laythi reports:

خَرَجْنَا مَعَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ قِبَلَ حُنَيْنٍ ، فَمَرَرْنَا بِالسِّدْرَ ةِ ، فَقُلْتُ : أَيْ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ اجْعَلْ لَنَا هَذِهِ ذَاتَ أَنْوَاطٍ كَمَا لِلْكُفَّارِ ذَاتُ أَنْوَاطٍ ، وَكَانَ الْكُفَّارُ يَنُوطُونَ سِلاحَهُمْ بِسِدْرَةٍ وَيَعْكُفُونَ حَوْلَهَا ، فَقَالَ النَّبِيُّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : " اللَّهُ أَكْبَرُ ، هَذَا كَمَا قَالَتْ بنو إِسْرَائِيلَ لِمُوسَى : {اجْعَلْ لَنَا إِلَهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ آلِهَةٌ}، إِنَّكُمْ سَتَرْكَبُونَ سَنَنَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِكُمْ "

"Once we were with the Prophet in a journey (between Tayif and Hunayn: Rashid Rida) when we came across a huge, green, lote tree. We said, ‘Assign to this lote tree, O Prophet, a merit of honor (Dhat Anwat), for our (religious needs) just as the pagans had assigned merit of honor to a lote tree by which they hung their arms and squat around it.' He replied, ‘Allah is Great. This is similar to the Israelites asking their Prophet: "O Musa. Assign for us a deity as they have deities." Surely, you will follow those who were before you in every little detail'" (Ibn Jarir).

The hadith is in Ahmad (Ibn Kathir). It is also in Tirmidhi, who declared it Sahih, Nasa'i, Ibn Abi Hatim, Tabarani and others (Shawkani).

Arab pagans used to declare certain lote trees as sacrosanct, suspend their arms by its branches seeking blessings, and squatted around it for shorter or longer period. They called it Dhat Anwat: one by which (arms) are hung (Qurtubi, Ibn Kathir and others).