Tafseer of Explained in detail · Fussilat · 41:17
And as for Thamud, We guided them, but they preferred blindness over guidance, so the thunderbolt of humiliating punishment seized them for what they used to earn.
Important: The Arabic source text is always authoritative. This translation is a study aid and has not been verified by scholars — do not use it as a basis for religious proof or for deriving rulings (ahkam). When in doubt, always consult the Arabic text and a qualified scholar.
The explanation of the saying of the Exalted: وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى عَلَى الْهُدَى فَأَخَذَتْهُمْ صَاعِقَةُ الْعَذَابِ الْهُونِ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ (17) ("And as for Thamūd, We guided them, but they preferred blindness over guidance; so the destroying thunderbolt of the humiliating punishment (ʿadhāb) seized them, because of what they used to earn") (17).
The Exalted, whose remembrance is exalted, says: We made clear to them the way of the truth and the path of right guidance.
As ʿAlī related to me, he said: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, he said: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ ("And as for Thamūd, We guided them"): that is to say: We made it clear to them.
Bishr related to us, he said: Yazīd related to us, he said: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ ("And as for Thamūd, We guided them"): We made clear to them the way of good and evil.
Muḥammad related to us, he said: Aḥmad related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ ("And as for Thamūd, We guided them"): We made it clear to them.
Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ ("And as for Thamūd, We guided them"), he said: We made known to them the guidance and the error, and We forbade them to follow the error and commanded them to follow the guidance.
The Qurʾān reciters differed over the reading of His saying ثَمُودُ. Most of the reciters of the cities, with the exception of al-Aʿmash and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Isḥāq, read "Thamūdu" in the nominative (rafʿ), without making it fully declinable, because it is a name for the people known by it. As for al-Aʿmash, it is reported of him that he made it declinable (with tanwīn) throughout the entire Qurʾān, except in His saying وَآتَيْنَا ثَمُودَ النَّاقَةَ مُبْصِرَةً ("And We gave Thamūd the she-camel as a visible sign"), for in that particular place he did not make it declinable, because of the fact that in the script of the muṣḥaf it stands in that place without an alif; and he understood "Thamūd" as if it were the name of a particular, well-known man, or the name of a well-known tribe. As for Ibn Isḥāq, he read it in the accusative (naṣb): "wa-ammā Thamūda," without making it declinable; and although that has a known grammatical basis in Arabic, more eloquent and more correct in inflection according to the grammarians is the nominative, because after "ammā" nouns are desired and verbs do not immediately follow it. The Arabs only make the verbs that come after the nouns operate therein when it is good to place them before; and the verb after "ammā" — it is not good to place it before the noun. Do you not see that one does not say: "wa-ammā hadaynā fa-Thamūdu," as one says: وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ ("And as for Thamūd, We guided them")?
The correct view of the reading concerning that is, according to us, the nominative and not making it declinable: the nominative for what I have described, and not making it declinable because it is a name for the people.
And His saying: فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى عَلَى الْهُدَى ("but they preferred blindness over guidance") means: they preferred blindness over the clear exposition which I gave them and the guidance which I made known to them, in that they took the way of error over guidance — that is to say: over the exposition which He gave them concerning the oneness of Allah.
And in accordance with what we have said concerning that, the scholars of interpretation have spoken.
* The mention of who said that:
Muḥammad related to us, he said: Aḥmad related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى عَلَى الْهُدَى ("but they preferred blindness over guidance"), he said: they preferred the error and the blindness over the guidance.
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, he said: my father related to me, he said: my uncle related to me, he said: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His saying: وَأَمَّا ثَمُودُ فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى عَلَى الْهُدَى ("And as for Thamūd, We guided them, but they preferred blindness over guidance"), he said: Allah sent the messengers to them with the guidance, but they preferred blindness over guidance.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى ("but they preferred blindness"), he says: We made it clear to them, but they preferred blindness over guidance.
Yūnus related to me, he said: Ibn Wahb informed us, he said: Ibn Zayd said concerning His saying: فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى عَلَى الْهُدَى ("but they preferred blindness over guidance"), he said: they preferred the error over the guidance, and he recited: وَكَذَلِكَ زَيَّنَّا لِكُلِّ أُمَّةٍ عَمَلَهُمْ ("And thus We have made fair-seeming to every community their deeds") ... to the end of the verse. He said: thus was made fair-seeming to Thamūd their ugly deed; and he recited: أَفَمَنْ زُيِّنَ لَهُ سُوءُ عَمَلِهِ فَرَآهُ حَسَنًا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ يُضِلُّ مَنْ يَشَاءُ ("Is then he for whom the evil of his deed is made fair-seeming, so that he regards it as good...? Indeed, Allah lets go astray whom He wills") ... to the end of the verse.
And His saying: فَأَخَذَتْهُمْ صَاعِقَةُ الْعَذَابِ الْهُونِ بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ ("so the destroying thunderbolt of the humiliating punishment seized them, because of what they used to earn") means: thus the humiliating, debasing punishment destroyed them with a destruction that humbled them and disgraced them; and "al-hūn" is humiliation (al-hawān).
As Muḥammad related to us, he said: Aḥmad related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: عَذَابَ الْهُونِ ("the humiliating punishment"), he said: the humiliation.
And His saying: بِمَا كَانُوا يَكْسِبُونَ ("because of what they used to earn") of the sins, through their disbelief in Allah before that, and their opposition toward Him, and their denial of His messengers.
