Tafseer of The Moon · Al-Qamar · 54:20
Extracting the people as if they were trunks of palm trees uprooted.
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.
And His word tanziʿu al-nāsa ka-annahum aʿjāzu nakhlin munqaʿir ("plucking out the people as though they were uprooted palm trunks") — He says: it tore the people loose and then cast them down upon their heads, so that their necks were broken and severed from their bodies.
As Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, he said: when the wind rose up, seven men of ʿĀd stood facing northward; among them were six of the strongest and largest-bodied of ʿĀd, among whom were ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥulayy, al-Ḥārith ibn Shaddād, al-Hilqām, the two sons of Tīqan, and Khaljān ibn Asʿad. They had lodged the women and children by night in a mountain ravine between two mountains, and then stationed themselves at the mouth of the ravine to ward off the wind from those women and children who were within the ravine. But the wind began to strike them down one by one. A woman of ʿĀd then said:
Time has carried off ʿAmr ibn / Ḥulayy, and the Hunayyāt,
Then al-Ḥārith and al-Hil- / qām, the climber of the mountain passes,
And him who shut off the wind / from us in the days of calamities.
Al-ʿAbbās ibn al-Walīd al-Bayrūtī related to us, he said: my father informed me, he said: Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAyyāsh related to me, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, he said: when the wind rose up, seven men of ʿĀd stood and said: we shall ward off the wind. They came to the mouth of the ravine from which the wind was coming, and stationed themselves there. The wind began to blow and forced its way beneath each one of them, one by one, tore him loose from the ground and cast him upon his head, so that his neck broke. Thus it did with six of them, and left them as Allah has said: aʿjāzu nakhlin munqaʿir ("uprooted palm trunks"). Khaljān remained and came to Hūd and said: O Hūd, what is that which I see in the clouds, in the form of Bactrian camels? He said: those are the angels of my Lord. He said: what can I expect if I surrender? He said: then you will be saved. He said: will your Lord, if I surrender, grant me retribution (qiṣāṣ) against these? He said: woe to you! Have you ever seen a king who hands over his own soldiers in retribution? He said: by His might, even if He did so, I would not be content with it. He said: then he turned toward the flank of the mountain, grasped a jutting projection of it and shook it, and it moved in his hand. Then he began to say:
Nothing remained but Khaljān himself —
O what a calamity his day has brought upon me!
With firm tread, mighty, heavy of stamp;
Had he not come to me, I would have gone to him to defy him.
He said: then the wind rose up and joined him to his companions.
Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, he said: Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm related to us, he said: Nūḥ ibn Qays related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Sayf related to us, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, he said: when the wind drew near, the people of ʿĀd stood up against it, and they grasped one another's hands as the non-Arabs (al-aʿājim) are wont to do, and they pressed their feet into the ground and said: O Hūd, who will tear our feet loose from the ground, if you are truthful? Then Allah sent the wind over them and made them as though they were uprooted palm trunks.
Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm related to me, he said: Muslim related to us, he said: Nūḥ ibn Qays related to us, he said: Ashʿath ibn Jābir related to us, on the authority of Shahr ibn Ḥawshab, on the authority of Abū Hurayra, he said: a man of the people of ʿĀd made of stone the two door-leaves in such a way that, even if five hundred men of this community gathered upon them, they would not be able to carry them; and one of them pressed his foot into the ground, and it sank away into the ground. And He said: ka-annahum aʿjāzu nakhlin ("as though they were palm trunks"); and the meaning of the phrase is: thus He left them as though they were uprooted palm trunks. The mention of "thus He left them" has been omitted, because the import of the phrase sufficiently indicates it. And it has been said: He compared them only to uprooted palm trunks because their heads were severed from their bodies, so that thereby their necks vanished and their bodies remained.
* Mention of who said that:
Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿArafa related to us, he said: Khalaf ibn Khalīfa related to us, on the authority of Hilāl ibn Khabbāb, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning His word ka-annahum aʿjāzu nakhlin munqaʿir: he said: their heads fell off like tent-cloths, and their necks became scattered — or: severed (Abū Jaʿfar said: I am in doubt) — and thus He compared them to uprooted palm trunks.
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 word tanziʿu al-nāsa ka-annahum aʿjāzu nakhlin munqaʿir: he said: that is the people of ʿĀd when the wind struck them down, so that they were like cleft palm trunks.
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Footnotes:
(4) These verses are by a woman of ʿĀd, the people of Hūd — peace be upon him — (marginal note of al-Qurṭubī 17:136). The author has mentioned the verses in the account of ʿĀd, when Allah let loose the wind upon them. Allah knows best who said them and who transmitted them. The word ("ʿalaynā", "over us") is an addition made to restore the meter, and is absent in the original.
(5) These two verses are among the poems that the transmitters of reports have transmitted in the account of the destruction of ʿĀd, the people of Hūd, by the wind. Al-Thaʿlabī, the exegete, cited them in his famous book Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, known as ʿArāʾis al-majālis, p. 64 of the al-Ḥalabī edition. End.
