Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:166
So when they were insolent about that which they had been forbidden, We said to them, "Be apes, despised."
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 His word: فَلَمَّا عَتَوْا عَنْ مَا نُهُوا عَنْهُ قُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ (And when they persisted defiantly in that which was forbidden to them, We said to them: be despised apes) (7:166).
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted, whose mention is exalted, says: When they became rebellious in that which was forbidden to them — namely their transgression concerning the Sabbath and their holding permissible what Allāh had forbidden them, that is, the catching of fish and the eating thereof — and persisted in that, "We said to them: be despised apes," that is to say: removed from goodness.
* * *
And in accordance with what we have said about this, the expositors of the Scripture have spoken.
* Mention of who said that:
15294 — Bishr ibn Muʿādh related to us, saying: Yazīd related to us, saying: Saʿīd related to us, on the authority of Qatāda: "And when they persisted defiantly in that which was forbidden to them," he says: when the people became rebellious in disobedience — "We said to them: be despised apes," and so they became apes with tails, howling, after they had been men and women.
15295 — Muḥammad ibn Saʿd related to me, saying: my father related to me, saying: my uncle related to me, saying: my father related to me, on the authority of his father, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning His word: "And when they persisted defiantly in that which was forbidden to them, We said to them: be despised apes," thus Allāh made of them apes and swine. And he claimed that the young of the people became apes, and that those advanced in years became swine.
15296 — Al-Muthannā related to me, saying: al-Ḥimmānī related to us, saying: Sharīk related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī, on the authority of Abū Mālik or Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, he said: Mūsā, peace be upon him, saw on the Sabbath day a man carrying reeds, and he struck off his head.
