Tafseer of The Reality · Al-Haaqqa · 69:7
Which Allah imposed upon them for seven nights and eight days in succession, so you would see the people therein fallen as if they were hollow trunks of palm trees.
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.
His statement: "He let it rage against them for seven nights and eight consecutive days" (69:7). The Exalted, whose praise is sublime, says: He let those winds rage against ʿĀd for seven nights and eight consecutive days (ḥusūman). Some said: by this is meant: in succession.
* Mention of who said that:
ʿAlī related to me, saying: Abū Ṣāliḥ related to us, saying: Muʿāwiya related to me, on the authority of ʿAlī, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning his statement: "And eight consecutive days" — he says: in succession.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr related to me, saying: Abū ʿĀṣim related to us, saying: ʿĪsā related to us; and al-Ḥārith related to me, saying: al-Ḥasan related to us, saying: Warqāʾ related to us — both on the authority of Ibn Abī Najīḥ, on the authority of Mujāhid, concerning his statement: "Consecutive" (ḥusūman) — he said: in succession.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Ḥakkām related, on the authority of ʿAmr, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Abū Maʿmar, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd: "And eight consecutive days" — he said: in succession.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Jarīr related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Abū Maʿmar, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh ibn Masʿūd, like the narration of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr.
Ibn Bashshār related to us, saying: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Abū Maʿmar, on the authority of ʿAbdallāh: "Consecutive" — he said: in succession.
He said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān related to us, saying: Sufyān related to us, on the authority of Simāk ibn Ḥarb, on the authority of ʿIkrima, concerning his statement: "Consecutive" — he said: in succession.
Ibn al-Muthannā related to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar related to us, saying: Shuʿba related to us, on the authority of Simāk ibn Ḥarb, on the authority of ʿIkrima, that he said concerning this verse: "And eight consecutive days" — he said: in succession.
Naṣr ibn ʿAlī related to us, saying: my father related to me, saying: Khālid ibn Qays related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "And eight consecutive days" — he said: in succession, without interruption.
Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his statement: "And eight consecutive days" — he said: in succession, without any slackening therein.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, saying: Ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda, concerning his statement: "Consecutive" — he said: continuous.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Manṣūr, on the authority of Mujāhid, on the authority of Abū Maʿmar ʿAbdallāh ibn Sakhbara, on the authority of Ibn Masʿūd: "Consecutive days" — he said: in succession.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān, he said: Mujāhid said: "Consecutive days" — he said: in succession.
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Mihrān related to us, on the authority of Sufyān: "Consecutive days" — he said: in succession; and "days of calamity" (ayyāmin naḥisāt) — he said: bringing misfortune.
Others said: by his statement "consecutive" (ḥusūman) the wind is meant, namely that it cuts off everything (taḥsim), so that of ʿĀd no one remained; and they made this "ḥusūm" an attribute of the wind.
* Mention of who said that:
Yūnus related to me, saying: Ibn Wahb informed us, saying: Ibn Zayd said concerning his statement: "And eight consecutive days" — he said: it cut them off and left none of them remaining. He said: that "ḥusūm" is like when one says: cut off this matter (iḥsim hādhā al-amr). He said: and among them were eight who had such strength that they could drag them off in every direction. He said: Mūsā ibn ʿUqba said: when the punishment came to them, they said: let us rise up to ward off this punishment from our people. He said: so they rose up and arrayed themselves in rows in the valley, and Allah revealed to the angel of the wind that he should snatch away one of them each day. And he recited the statement of Allah: "He let it rage against them for seven nights and eight consecutive days," until he came to: "fallen palm trunks" (nakhlin khāwiya). He said: and the wind passed by a woman in her litter and overturned her and her load, and then carried them up into the sky, and then cast them down upon their heads. And he recited the statement of Allah: "Then when they saw it as a cloud, heading toward their valleys, they said: this is a cloud bringing us rain." He said: and He had withheld the rain from them. He continued reciting until he came to: "destroying everything by the command of its Lord." He said: and the wind snatched away of those eight only one per day. He said: when Allah punished the people of ʿĀd, Allah left one alive to warn the people. He said: there was a woman who had seen her people, and they said to her: you too. She said: I withdrew to the mountain. He said: later it was said to her: you were saved and you saw it, so how is it that you did not see the punishment of Allah? She said: I do not know, except that I became safe in one night: a night without wind.
And of the two opinions concerning this, the correct one in my judgment is the opinion of those who said: by his statement "consecutive" (ḥusūman) is meant: in succession, because of the consensus of the authoritative proof of the people of interpretation thereon. And some of the Arabic philologists said: ḥusūm is succession; when something is linked together so that its beginning is not cut off from its end, "ḥusūm" is said of it. He said: and they derived it — and Allah knows best — from the "ḥasm" of the ailment: when one cauterizes the sufferer with it, for it is flesh that is seared with the branding iron and then repeatedly applied.
His statement: "Then you would see the people therein laid prostrate" — he says: then you, O Muhammad, would see the people of ʿĀd laid prostrate, perished, during those seven nights and eight consecutive days. "As though they were fallen palm trunks" — he says: as though they were the root-stumps of palms that have toppled over.
As Bishr related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "As though they were fallen palm trunks" — those are the root-stumps of the palms.
