Surah Al-A'raf 7:73-84 - Quran Translation Commentary

(7:73) And to Thamud¹⁰⁸ (We sent) their brother Salih. He said, ‘My people. Worship Allah alone. You have no god other than He. A clear sign has come to you from your Lord: this is Allah's own she camel:¹⁰⁹ a sign for you.¹¹⁰ So leave her alone to graze in Allah's land, and touch her not in harm, lest a painful chastisement seizes you.

(7:74) Remember that He made you the successors after `Aad and allowed you to prevail in the land in whose plain fields you build castles and whose mountains you carve for homes.¹¹¹ Remember then Allah's blessings and commit not in the earth corruption.'

(7:75) The arrogant elites of his people said to those of the weakened believers, ‘Do you think Salih has been sent by His Lord?' They answered, ‘We believe in that which he has been sent with.'¹¹²

(7:76) Said those who were arrogant, ‘As for us, we are, indeed, in what you believe unbelievers.'¹¹³

(7:77) Then they hamstrung the she camel,¹¹⁴ and insolently defied the order of their Lord. And they said, ‘Salih. Bring down upon us that which you were threatening us with if you are one of the envoys.'

(7:78) So an earthquake seized them, so that by morning they lay fallen on their faces.

(7:79) He turned away from them saying, ‘My people. Surely, I conveyed to you the messages of my Lord and sincerely counseled you but you do not seem to appreciate sincere counsellors.'¹¹⁵

(7:80) And (recall) when Lut said to his people, ‘Do you commit a lewdness that no creation committed before you?¹¹⁶

(7:81) You go into men out of lust in preference of women. You are indeed a transgressing people.'¹¹⁷

(7:82) His people had no answer but to say, ‘Expel them from your town. These are a puritanical folk.

(7:83) So We delivered him and his kinsfolk save for his wife: she was of those who lagged behind.¹¹⁸

(7:84) Thereafter We rained upon them a shower (of brim stones).¹¹⁹ See then, what was the end of the criminals!¹²⁰

Commentary

108. Asad writes: "The Nabataean tribe of Thamud descended from the tribe of `Ad mentioned in the preceding passage, and is, therefore, often referred to in pre Islamic poetry as the "Second `Ad". Apart from Arabian sources, "a series of older references, not of Arabian origin, confirm the historical existence of the name of the people Thamud. Thus the inscription of Sargon of the year 715 B.C. mention the Thamud among the people of the eastern and central Arabia subjected by the Assyrians. We also find the Thamudaei, Thamudenes mentioned in Aristo, Ptolemy, and Pliny" (Encyclopedia of Islam IV, 736). At the time of which the Qur'an speaks, the Thamud were settled in the northernmost Hijaz, near the confines of Syria. Rock inscriptions attributed to them are still extant in the region of Al Hijr. As in the case of `Adite prophet Hud and the prophet Shu`ayb spoken of in verse 85 93 of this surah Salih is called the "brother" of the tribe because he belonged to it."

109. It was called Allah's own camel out of reverence. Other examples are "House of God," "Allah's Fire," etc. (Ibn Kathir).

Thanwi adds: It is perhaps in this vein that the words "`ala suratihi" (lit., in His own image) of the famous hadith should be taken.

The hadith alluded to by Thanwi is:

خَلَقَ اللَّهُ آدَمَ عَلَى صُورَتِهِ - صحيح البخاري

"Allah created Adam in His own image."

110. Majid quotes: "Near the summit of Jebel Musa is a peculiar mark in the stone which has a strong resemblance to the imprint of a camel's foot. It is regarded by the Bedawin with great veneration, and the girls, when tending their flocks on the mountain, often milk their goats into it as a sure means of obtaining increase and prosperity. This is called Athar Naqat en Nabi, "the footprint of the Prophet's she camel" ... I should therefore conclude that the Nabi Salih of the tomb in the Wady es Sheikh, the prophet of the camel's footprints, and the Salih of the Qur'an are identical" (Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, p. 50)"

111. "A reference to the elaborate rock dwellings or tombs to be seen to this day which the Thamud carved out of the cliffs west of Al Hijr, in northern Hijaz, and embellished with sculptures of animals as well as many inscriptions attesting to the comparatively high degree of their civilization and power. In popular Arabic parlance, these rock dwellings are nowadays called Mada'in Salih (The Towns of Salih)" Asad.

112. "The contents of this message .. appeared to them justification enough to accept it on its own merits, without the need of any esoteric "proof" of Salih's mission. In a subtle way, this statement of faith has a meaning which goes far beyond the story of the Thamud. It is an invitation to the skeptic who is unable to believe in the divine origin of a religious message, to judge it on its intrinsic merit and not to make his acceptance dependent on extraneous, and objectively impossible, proofs of its origin: for only through the contents of a message can its truth and validity be established” (Asad).

113. What the rejecters meant to ask the lowly believers was: ‘So far as our big and important people are concerned, they are not able to figure out whether Salih is a Messenger or not. But have you, O people of low intellect, already reached the conclusion that he has been commissioned? The wise answer that the believers gave was: It is not the question of knowing or not knowing, being able to figure it out or not being able to figure it out. It is beyond doubt both to us as well as to you, that Salih has been commissioned. The contention is not, therefore, over the fact of he being commissioned. The contention is over whether we should declare our belief in him or should we not. Well, you have taken your stand, and we have taken ours, viz., we have declared our belief that He is a Messenger of God.’ At this point the unbelievers were forced to admit that they had decided to disbelieve in Salih as a matter of policy, irrespective of what the facts spoke. And, therefore, they meant to say to the lowly unbelievers that ‘in view of our big-time fellows making that decision, your belief, O the lowly ones, is of no consequence to us' (based on Shabbir).

114. The verb `aqara primarily denotes "he hamstrung (an animal)" i.e., before slaughtering it, so that it might not run away. This custom was widely practiced in pre Islamic Arabia, so that `aqr ("hamstringing") gradually became synonymous with slaughtering. The term hamstring itself is defined as: "the great tendon at the back of the hock of a four footed animal," i.e., what corresponds to the tendon at the back of the knees among the humans (Au.).

Here, the act of hamstringing the camel has been attributed to the whole nation while it was only a group of people, led by an individual, who had done that. The commentators have pointed out in explanation that the rest of the people did not object to the crime. In fact, Rashid Rida points out, that according to reports those who did the hamstringing actually sought everyone's assent: entering every house for consultation. Therefore, the scourge came on all. Allah has said elsewhere (8: 25):

وَاتَّقُوا فِتْنَةً لَا تُصِيبَنَّ الَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا مِنْكُمْ خَاصَّةً [الأنفال : 25]

"And beware of a tribulation that will not specifically strike the transgressors alone among you."

The story behind the camel is that the Thamudians asked for a sign. A camel was given to them as the sign. She was a huge animal that came out with the split of a rock. They were told to respect her and allow her to drink from the town-well once every second day. She drank off all the water of the well on the day of her turn. The Thamudian unbelievers did not like it and formed a team to hamstring her. When one of them did that, the nation was overtaken by Allah’s scourge. It destroyed them all (Au.).

115. The address was made after they were destroyed. As to the question of effectiveness of the statement, there could be several answers. First, it could have been a remark uttered in half sarcasm, half pity (Au.). Second, it could be in the same vein as that of the Prophet to the slain chieftains at Badr. He said, "O so and so, so and so, we found the promise made to us by our Lord true. Have you also found the promises made to you true?" `Umar asked: "Are you speaking to the corpses?" The Prophet replied: "You do not hear better than they do. But they have no power to reply" (Razi, Ibn Kathir). Third, it could be in the same style as a poet's poetical piece on seeing a castle or a historical town in ruin (Shabbir).

116. `Amr b. Dinar has said that the nation of Lut was the first to indulge in homosexuality (Ibn Jarir). That is, perhaps as a people (not individuals) and at the national level (Au.).

Thanwi has written that by the words "a lewdness that no creation committed before you," the implication is that sometimes the fact that an evil was practiced by previous generations gives suggestion to the later people that it might not be an evil. But, in this case, the abominable act was entirely an innovation. Another implication is that laying the foundation of an evil is worse than being a practitioner of another's invention.

117. Yusuf Ali writes: "Lut is the Lot of the English Bible. His story is biblical, but freed from some shameful features which are a blot on the biblical narrative, (e.g., see Gen. xix, 30 36). He was a nephew of Abraham, and was sent as a Prophet and warner to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities utterly destroyed for their unspeakable sins. (Ibrahim asws also sometimes visited them to admonish them: Thanwi). They cannot be exactly located, but it may be supposed that they were somewhere in the plain east of the Dead Sea. The story of their destruction is told in the 19th chapter of Genesis. Two angels in the shape of handsome young men came to Lot in the evening and became his guests by night. The inhabitants of Sodom in their lust for unnatural crime invaded Lot's house but were repulsed. In the morning, the angels warned Lot to escape with his family. "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt" (Gen. xix. 24 26).

118. Yusuf Ali also comments: "In the biblical narrative she looks back, a physical act ... Here she is a type of those who lag behind, i.e., whose mental and moral attitude, in spite of their association with the righteous, is to hark back to the glitter of wickedness and sin."

119. It is said that the people of Lut lived in five major towns. Sodom was their capital. However, remains of none of them could be located till today despite intensive searches. Either they are under the Dead Sea, or, they were turned upside down so nothing remained. Commentators and Muslim historians have generally reported that when the time for punishment came, Jibril scooped up the whole of the nation with one of his wings, lifted them to the Heavens where their cries could be heard, and then banged them against the ground (ref. 11: 82). That could explain why their remains could not be found. The Dead Sea itself, the site of Lut's nation (also known as Transjordan), about 1000 sq. km, is the lowest land level on the earth. It is even below the sea level by about 400 meters. The Dead Sea is so called because nothing ever lives in it (except brime shrimp) because of its high salt content. Its water is the saltiest collection of liquid on earth, being nine times as salty as the oceans. In fact, nothing grows on the shore around (Au.).

Abu Hamza says he asked Muhammad b. `Ali: "Did Allah punish the nations' women because of the crime of their men?" He answered: "Allah is more just than that. Their women committed lesbianism (Alusi). That was of course in addition to their denial – by men and women - of the Prophet sent to them, which was the primary cause of punishment (Au.).

120. There is consensus of opinion that punishment for homosexuality is death for the married, and lashes for the unmarried Muslim (Ibn Kathir). The Prophet said in a hadith of Abu Da'ud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah and Musnad Ahmad that the active and the passive both be killed. However, there are differences over the form of punishment. Imam Abu Hanifah has said that a criminal of this kind should be thrown down a cliff and then stoned to death, in keeping with the punishment meted out to the nation of Lut (Ma`arif).

Mawdudi writes: "Now, the crime of the person who commits sodomy ... is not limited to that act alone. In fact he commits along with it a number of other crimes. First, he wages war against his own nature, against his inherent psychological predilection. This causes a major disorder which leads to highly negative effects on the lives of both the parties involved in that unnatural act effects which are physical, psychological as well as moral. Second, he acts dishonestly with nature since while he derives sexual pleasure he fails to fulfil the social obligations of which this pleasure is a recompense. Third, such a person also acts dishonestly with human society. For, although he avails himself of the advantages offered by various social institutions, when he has an opportunity to act, he uses his abilities in a manner which not only fails to serve that society but positively harms it. Apart from neglecting the obligations he owes to society, he renders himself incapable of serving the human race and his own family. He also produces effeminacy in at least one male and potentially pushes at least two females towards sexual corruption and moral depravity...

"It should also be made clear that it is altogether unlawful for the husband to perpetrate this act on his wife. The Prophet (peace be on him), according to a tradition in Abu Da'ud said: ‘Cursed be he who commits this act with a woman.'"