Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:73
And to the Thamud [We sent] their brother Salih. He said, "O my people, worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him. There has come to you clear evidence from your Lord. This is the she-camel of Allah [sent] to you as a sign. So leave her to eat within Allah 's land and do not touch her with harm, lest there seize you a painful punishment.
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 discourse on the explanation of His statement: وَإِلَى ثَمُودَ أَخَاهُمْ صَالِحًا قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مَا لَكُمْ مِنْ إِلَهٍ غَيْرُهُ قَدْ جَاءَتْكُمْ بَيِّنَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ هَذِهِ نَاقَةُ اللَّهِ لَكُمْ آيَةً فَذَرُوهَا تَأْكُلْ فِي أَرْضِ اللَّهِ وَلا تَمَسُّوهَا بِسُوءٍ فَيَأْخُذَكُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ (73) ("And to Thamūd [We sent] their brother Ṣāliḥ. He said: O my people, worship Allah; you have no god other than Him. There has already come to you a clear proof from your Lord. This is the she-camel of Allah, as a sign for you. So let her eat on the earth of Allah and do not touch her with harm, lest a painful punishment seize you." (7:73))
Abū Jaʿfar said: The Exalted in mention says: And We indeed sent to Thamūd their brother Ṣāliḥ.
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And "Thamūd" is Thamūd ibn Ghāthir ibn Iram ibn Sām ibn Nūḥ, and he is the brother of Jadīs ibn Ghāthir. Their dwelling places were al-Ḥijr, between the Ḥijāz and Syria (al-Shaʾm), up to Wādī al-Qurā and what surrounded it.
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And the meaning of the words is: And to the sons of Thamūd [We sent] their brother Ṣāliḥ.
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And "Thamūd" was made indeclinable only because "Thamūd" is a tribe, just as "Bakr" is a tribe, and likewise "Tamīm".
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(He said: O my people, worship Allah; you have no god other than Him) — He says: Ṣāliḥ said to Thamūd: O my people, worship Allah alone, He has no partner; there is for you no god whom it is permitted for you to worship other than Him. And there has already come to you a proof and an argument for the truth of what I say, and for the truthfulness of that to which I call, namely the pure attribution of oneness (tawḥīd) to Allah, the belonging of worship to Him alone without anything else, and the affirmation that I am His messenger. And my clear proof for what I say, and the truth of that with which I have come to you from my Lord, and my argument for it, is this she-camel which Allah has brought forth from this hill, as proof of my prophethood and the truthfulness of my words. For you know that this belongs to the miracles which no one can produce except Allah.
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And Ṣāliḥ only called the she-camel as witness, according to what has reached me, to the soundness of his prophethood before his people Thamūd, because they had asked him for that as a sign and indication of the truth of his words.
* Mention of who said that, and mention of the reason why the people of Ṣāliḥ killed the she-camel:
14810 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Isrāʾīl informed us, on the authority of ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Rufayʿ, on the authority of Abū al-Ṭufayl, who said: Thamūd said to Ṣāliḥ: Bring us a sign if you are among the truthful! He said: Then Ṣāliḥ said to them: Go out to a hill in the land! Then they went out, and behold, she began to be in labor as a pregnant woman is in labor, then it split open and from its midst the she-camel came forth. Then Ṣāliḥ said: (This is the she-camel of Allah, as a sign for you. So let her eat on the earth of Allah and do not touch her with harm, lest a painful punishment seize you) = لَهَا شِرْبٌ وَلَكُمْ شِرْبُ يَوْمٍ مَعْلُومٍ ("For her is a drink and for you the drink of a known day") [Sūrat al-Shuʿarāʾ: 155]. When they grew weary of her, they hamstrung her, and He said to them: تَمَتَّعُوا فِي دَارِكُمْ ثَلاثَةَ أَيَّامٍ ذَلِكَ وَعْدٌ غَيْرُ مَكْذُوبٍ ("Enjoy yourselves in your dwelling for three days; that is a promise not to be belied") [Sūrat Hūd: 65]. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said: And another man related to me: that Ṣāliḥ said to them: The sign of the punishment is that tomorrow you will turn red, on the second day yellow, and on the third day black. He said: Then the punishment came upon them in the morning. When they saw that, they embalmed themselves (with ḥanūṭ) and made themselves ready.
14812 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, he said: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, he said: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: (And to Thamūd their brother Ṣāliḥ), he said: Allah sent Ṣāliḥ to Thamūd, and he called them, but they accused him of lying. Then he said to them what Allah has mentioned in the Qurʾān, and they asked him to bring them a sign. Then he brought them the she-camel: for her was a drink and for them the drink of a known day. And he said: (Let her eat on the earth of Allah and do not touch her with harm). Then they all acknowledged her; that is His statement: فَهَدَيْنَاهُمْ فَاسْتَحَبُّوا الْعَمَى عَلَى الْهُدَى ("And We guided them, but they preferred blindness over guidance") [Sūrat Fuṣṣilat: 17]. And they had acknowledged it out of hypocrisy (nifāq) and out of caution (taqiyya). And the she-camel had a drink: on the day on which she drank water, she would pass between two mountains, and they would make room for her — upon that her trace remains to this day — then she would come and stand before them until they milked her, and she would satisfy them; she would yield milk only pouring forth. And on the day they drank the water, she did not come to them. And with her was a young foal of hers. Ṣāliḥ said to them: In this month of yours a boy will be born, at whose hands your destruction will take place! Then for nine of them a child was born in that month, and they slaughtered their sons. Then for the tenth a child was born, but he refused to slaughter his son, and before that time nothing had been born to him. And the son of the tenth was blue-eyed and red; he grew up quickly, and when he passed by the nine and they saw him, they said: If our sons were alive, they would be like this one! Then the nine became angry with Ṣāliḥ, because he had commanded them to slaughter their sons = تَقَاسَمُوا بِاللَّهِ لَنُبَيِّتَنَّهُ وَأَهْلَهُ ثُمَّ لَنَقُولَنَّ لِوَلِيِّهِ مَا شَهِدْنَا مَهْلِكَ أَهْلِهِ وَإِنَّا لَصَادِقُونَ ("They swore to one another by Allah: We will surely attack him and his family by night, then we will surely say to his next of kin: We did not witness the destruction of his family, and indeed we speak the truth") [al-Naml: 49]. They said: We will depart, so that the people think we have gone on a journey, and we will come to the cave and be in it, until night falls and Ṣāliḥ goes to the mosque; then we will come to him and kill him, then we will return to the cave and stay in it, then we will return and say: We did not witness the destruction of his family, and indeed we speak the truth — they will believe us, for they know that we have gone on a journey! Then they went away, and when they entered the cave and wished to go out in the night, the cave collapsed upon them and killed them. That is His statement: وَكَانَ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ تِسْعَةُ رَهْطٍ يُفْسِدُونَ فِي الأَرْضِ وَلا يُصْلِحُونَ ("And there were in the city nine men who spread corruption in the land and did no good") up to where He comes: فَانْظُرْ كَيْفَ كَانَ عَاقِبَةُ مَكْرِهِمْ أَنَّا دَمَّرْنَاهُمْ وَقَوْمَهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ ("So see how the end of their plotting was: We destroyed them and their people all together") [Sūrat al-Naml: 48-51]. And the boy, the son of the tenth, grew up and grew up wondrously fast. He was sitting with a group of men who were drinking wine, and they wanted water to mix with their drink, and that day was the day of the she-camel's drink. Then they found that the water had already been drunk by the she-camel, and that weighed heavily upon them. And they said concerning the matter of the she-camel: What shall we do about the milk? If we were to take this water that this she-camel drinks, and give it to our livestock and our crops to drink, that would be better for us! Then the boy, the son of the tenth, said: Would you like me to kill her for you? They said: Yes! Then they revealed their true nature. The boy came to her, and when she saw him, she charged at him, and he fled from her. When he saw that, he went behind a rock on her path and concealed himself behind it, and said: Drive her toward me! Then they drove her toward him, and when she passed by him, they called out to him: Seize her! Then he seized her and killed her; she fell down. That is His statement: فَنَادَوْا صَاحِبَهُمْ فَتَعَاطَى فَعَقَرَ ("Then they called their companion, and he took [the sword] and killed [her]") [Sūrat al-Qamar: 29]. And then they brought their affair into the open, killed the she-camel, rebelled against the command of their Lord, and said: O Ṣāliḥ, bring us that with which you threaten us! And a number of people among them fled in panic to Ṣāliḥ and informed him that the she-camel had been killed. He said: Bring me the foal! Then they searched for the foal and found it on an elevated place in the land. They sought it, but it ascended with itself until it soared with itself into the sky, and they could not get hold of it. Then the foal cried out to Allah, and Allah revealed to Ṣāliḥ: Command them that they may enjoy themselves in their dwelling for three days! Then Ṣāliḥ said to them: Enjoy yourselves in your dwelling for three days, and the sign of that is that your faces will turn yellow on the first day, red on the second, black on the third day, and on the fourth day the punishment will be therein. When they saw the signs, they wrapped themselves in shrouds, embalmed themselves (with ḥanūṭ), anointed themselves with myrrh, put on leather garments, dug burrows and entered them, awaiting the cry, until the punishment came to them and they perished. That is His statement: دَمَّرْنَاهُمْ وَقَوْمَهُمْ أَجْمَعِينَ ("We destroyed them and their people all together").
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, who said: When Allah destroyed ʿĀd and their affair had ended, Thamūd inhabited the land after them and were appointed as successors on the earth. They settled in it and multiplied, then they rebelled against Allah. When their corruption became manifest and they worshipped other than Allah, He sent Ṣāliḥ to them = and they were an Arab people, and he was of the most middling lineage among them and of the highest standing = as a messenger. Their dwelling places were al-Ḥijr up to Qurḥ, and that is Wādī al-Qurā, and between them lay eighteen miles, in the region between the Ḥijāz and Syria. Allah sent to them a young man; he called them to Allah, until his hair turned gray and he grew old, while only a few of them, oppressed, followed him. When Ṣāliḥ pressed upon them with the call and repeated his warning to them and made them fear Allah's punishment and vengeance, they asked him to show them a sign that would be a confirmation of what he said in that to which he called them. Then he said to them: What sign do you want? They said: Go out with us to this festival of ours = and they had a festival to which they went out with their idols and with what they worshipped besides Allah, on a particular day of the year = and then call upon your god while we call upon our gods, and if you are answered, we will follow you, and if we are answered, you will follow us! Then Ṣāliḥ said to them: Yes! Then they went out with their idols to that festival of theirs, and Ṣāliḥ went out with them to Allah. They called upon their idols and asked them that nothing be answered to Ṣāliḥ of that with which he called. Then Jundaʿ ibn ʿAmr ibn Jawās ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Dumayl said to him — and he was on that day the lord of Thamūd and their greatest — O Ṣāliḥ, bring us out of this rock = a separate rock at one side of al-Ḥijr, called al-Kāthiba = a she-camel that is "mukhtaraja", swollen-bellied and hairy = and the "mukhtaraja" is what resembles the Bakht camels (the Khorasanian camels). And Thamūd said to Ṣāliḥ the same as Jundaʿ ibn ʿAmr had said = and if you do that, we will believe in you and affirm you and testify that that with which you have come is the truth! And Ṣāliḥ took their covenants: If I do it and Allah does it, you will surely affirm me and surely believe in me! They said: Yes! And they gave him their promises upon that. Then Ṣāliḥ implored his Lord to bring her forth for them from that hill, as they had described.
= And Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, on the authority of Yaʿqūb ibn ʿUtba ibn al-Mughīra ibn al-Akhnas, that he narrated: that they were looking at the hill, when Ṣāliḥ called upon Allah with that with which he called, and it went into labor with the she-camel as the pregnant beast is in labor with her young. Then the hill moved, then it shook with the she-camel, and it split open and brought forth a she-camel, as they had described: swollen-bellied, hairy, pregnant; what was between her two flanks in size none knows except Allah. Then Jundaʿ ibn ʿAmr and those who were with him in his affair from his tribe believed in him. And the notables of Thamūd wanted to believe in him and affirm him, but Dhuʾāb ibn ʿAmr ibn Labīd, and al-Ḥubāb, the keeper of their idols, and Rabāb ibn Ṣimʿar ibn Jilhis — and they were among the notables of Thamūd — restrained them from that, and they held back the notables from Islam and from entering into that to which Ṣāliḥ had called them of mercy and deliverance. And Jundaʿ had a nephew who was called "Shihāb ibn Khalīfa ibn Makhlāt ibn Labīd ibn Jawās", and he wanted to submit (to convert to Islam), but that group restrained him from it, and he obeyed them; and he was among the notables of Thamūd and their excellent ones. Then a man of Thamūd, called "Mahwas ibn ʿAnma ibn al-Dumayl", who was a Muslim, said:
And there was a group from the lineage of ʿAmr who called to the religion of the Prophet Shihāb,
the mighty one of all Thamūd together; he inclined to respond, and had he but responded,
then Ṣāliḥ would have become mighty among us, and they did not equate him with their companion Dhuʾāb;
but the misguided ones of the lineage of Ḥujr turned, after their right guidance, to Dhubāb.
And thus the she-camel which Allah had brought forth for them, with her foal, remained in the land of Thamūd; she grazed off the trees and drank the water. Ṣāliḥ, peace be upon him, said to them: (This is the she-camel of Allah, as a sign for you. So let her eat on the earth of Allah and do not touch her with harm, lest a painful punishment seize you). And Allah said to Ṣāliḥ: The water is a division between them, each drink attended = that is to say: the water is in two halves, for them a day and for her a day, and she is present; on her day she will not forgo her drink. And He said: لَهَا شِرْبٌ وَلَكُمْ شِرْبُ يَوْمٍ مَعْلُومٍ ("For her is a drink and for you the drink of a known day") [Sūrat al-Shuʿarāʾ: 155]. And she was, according to what has reached me — and Allah knows best — when she came to fetch water (and she came every other day), she would put her head into a well in al-Ḥijr that was called "the well of the she-camel". They claim that she drank from it when she came: she would put her head into it, and would not lift it until she had drunk every drop of water in the valley; then she would lift her head and spread her legs = that is to say she spread her legs for them = and then they would milk what they wished of the milk, drink and store, until they filled all their vessels. Then she would return by a mountain pass other than the one by which she had come; she could not return by where she had come because of its narrowness for her, and so she did not return by it. Until it was the next day, and that was their day; then they would drink what they wished of the water and store what they wished for the day of the she-camel; and they were therein in abundance. And the she-camel used to, according to what they mention, when it was hot, go in the summer to the high ground of the valley, and the livestock — their sheep, their cattle and their camels — fled from her and descended to the bottom of the valley in its heat and dryness = and that because the livestock took fright at her when they saw her = and in the winter she wintered at the bottom of the valley, and then their livestock fled to the high ground of the valley in the cold and dryness. That harmed their livestock, as a trial and a test. And her spring pastures were, according to what they claim, al-Ḥubāb and Ḥismā; all of that she grazed together with Wādī al-Ḥijr. That weighed heavily upon them, and they rebelled against the command of their Lord and agreed in their resolve to kill the she-camel.
= And there was a woman of Thamūd, called "ʿUnayza bint Ghanm ibn Mijlaz", with the byname Umm Ghanm, and she was of the Banū ʿUbayd ibn al-Muhl, the brother of Rumayl ibn al-Muhl. She was the wife of Dhuʾāb ibn ʿAmr; she was an aged old woman and possessed beautiful daughters and possessed wealth of camels, cattle and sheep = and another woman, called "Ṣadūf bint al-Muḥayyā ibn Dahr ibn al-Muḥayyā", the lord of the Banū ʿUbayd and the keeper of their idols in the former time, and the valley was called "Wādī al-Muḥayyā", and that is al-Muḥayyā the Elder, the grandfather of al-Muḥayyā the Younger, the father of Ṣadūf = and Ṣadūf was among the most beautiful of people, and was rich, with possessions of camels, sheep and cattle = and these two were among the two women in Thamūd with the fiercest enmity against Ṣāliḥ and the greatest disbelief toward him. And these two devised schemes, despite their disbelief in him, to have the she-camel killed, because of the harm she caused their livestock. And Ṣadūf was married to a maternal cousin, called "Ṣantam ibn Harāwa ibn Saʿd ibn al-Ghiṭrīf", of the Banū Hilīl. He converted to Islam and his Islam was good, and Ṣadūf had entrusted her possessions to him, and he spent them on those who had converted to Islam with him among the companions of Ṣāliḥ, until the possessions dwindled. Then Ṣadūf discovered that of his Islam, and reproached him for it. Then he showed her his religion and called her to Allah and to Islam, but she refused him and devised a scheme against him at night; she took his sons and daughters from him and hid them among the Banū ʿUbayd, her clan branch of which she was. And Ṣantam, her husband, was of the Banū Hilīl and was her maternal cousin. He said to her: Give me back my children! She said: Not until I summon you for arbitration before the Banū Ṣanʿān ibn ʿUbayd, or before the Banū Jundaʿ ibn ʿUbayd! Then Ṣantam said to her: Rather, I summon you for arbitration before the Banū Mirdās ibn ʿUbayd! And that because the Banū Mirdās ibn ʿUbayd had hastened to Islam, while the others had been slow with it. Then she said: I summon you for arbitration only before those to whom I have summoned you! Then the Banū Mirdās said: By Allah, you will give him his children, willingly or unwillingly! When she saw that, she gave them to him.
= Then Ṣadūf and ʿUnayza devised a scheme for killing the she-camel, because of the misery that had descended. Ṣadūf called upon a man of Thamūd called "al-Ḥubāb" to kill the she-camel, and offered herself to him for that if he did it, but he refused her. Then she called upon a nephew of hers, called "Miṣdaʿ ibn Mihraj ibn al-Muḥayyā", and held out herself to him on the condition that he kill the she-camel — and she was among the most beautiful of people, and was rich and possessed much wealth — and he agreed to that. = And ʿUnayza bint Ghanm called upon "Qudār ibn Sālif ibn Jundaʿ", a man of the people of Qurḥ. Qudār was a man, red, blue-eyed and short; they claim that he was born of fornication (zinā), from a man called "Ṣahyād", and not from his father "Sālif" to whom he is attributed, but he was born upon the bed of "Sālif" and was attributed to him and named after him. She said: I will give you whichever of my daughters you want, on the condition that you kill the she-camel! And ʿUnayza was a noblewoman among the women of Thamūd, and her husband Dhuʾāb ibn ʿAmr was among the notable men of Thamūd. And Qudār was mighty and inviolable among his people. Then Qudār ibn Sālif and Miṣdaʿ ibn Mihraj set out, and they incited misguided ones of Thamūd, and seven men followed them, so that they were nine men. One of the men who followed them was a man called "Huwayl ibn Mīlagh", the maternal uncle of Qudār ibn Sālif, the brother of his mother by father and mother, and he was mighty among the people of al-Ḥijr = and "Duʿayr ibn Ghanm ibn Dāʿir", and he was of the Banū Khalāwa ibn al-Muhl = and "Daʾb ibn Mihraj", the brother of Miṣdaʿ ibn Mihraj, and five whose names have not been preserved for us. ..... Then they lay in wait for the she-camel when she returned from the water, and Qudār had concealed himself for her at the foot of a rock on her path, and Miṣdaʿ had concealed himself for her at the foot of another. Then she passed by Miṣdaʿ, and he shot her with an arrow, which pierced the muscle of her shank. And Umm Ghanm, ʿUnayza, came out and commanded her daughter — and she was among the people with the most beautiful face — and she uncovered her face for Qudār and showed it to him, then she incited him. Then he charged at the she-camel with the sword, and split her hamstring, so that she fell down and uttered a single cry, with which she warned her foal; then he stabbed her in her chest cavity and slaughtered her. And her foal fled until it came to a high mountain, then it came in panic to a rock on the top of the mountain and sought shelter by it = and the name of the mountain is, they claim, "Ṣinw" = Then Ṣāliḥ came to them, and when he saw that the she-camel had been killed, he said: You have violated the inviolability of Allah, so rejoice in the punishment of Allah, blessed and exalted is He, and His vengeance! Then four of the nine men who had killed the she-camel followed the foal, and among them was "Miṣdaʿ ibn Mihraj". Miṣdaʿ shot it with an arrow, which pierced its heart, then he dragged it by its leg, brought it down, and then they threw its flesh beside the flesh of its mother.
= And when Ṣāliḥ said to them: "Rejoice in the punishment of Allah and His vengeance", they said to him, mocking him: And when is that, O Ṣāliḥ? And what is the sign of it? = And they used to name the days among themselves as follows: Sunday "Awwal", Monday "Ahwan", Tuesday "Dubār", Wednesday "Jubār", Thursday "Muʾnis", Friday "al-ʿUrūba", and Saturday "Shiyār", and they had killed the she-camel on Wednesday = Then Ṣāliḥ said to them, when they said that: You will awaken on the morning of the day Muʾnis — that is to say Thursday — with your faces yellow, then you will awaken on the day al-ʿUrūba — that is to say Friday — with your faces red, then you will awaken on the day Shiyār — that is to say Saturday — with your faces black, then the punishment will come upon you in the morning on the day Awwal — that is to say Sunday. When Ṣāliḥ had said that to them, the nine who had killed the she-camel said: Come, let us kill Ṣāliḥ! If he is truthful, we have hastened him before us, and if he is a liar, we have joined him to his she-camel! Then they came to him by night to attack him among his family, but the angels crushed them with stones. When they tarried in returning to their companions, those came to the dwelling of Ṣāliḥ and found them crushed, smashed by the stones. Then they said to Ṣāliḥ: You have killed them! Then they wished to attack him, but his kinsmen stood before him and seized their weapons and said to them: By Allah, you will never kill him! He has indeed promised you that the punishment will descend upon you within three days; if he is truthful, you only add to your Lord's wrath against you, and if he is a liar, then you attain what you want! Then they turned back from them that night. And the men whom the angels crushed with stones are the nine whom Allah, the Exalted, mentioned in the Qurʾān with His statement: وَكَانَ فِي الْمَدِينَةِ تِسْعَةُ رَهْطٍ يُفْسِدُونَ فِي الأَرْضِ وَلا يُصْلِحُونَ ("And there were in the city nine men who spread corruption in the land and did no good") up to His statement: لآيَةً لِقَوْمٍ يَعْلَمُونَ ("a sign for a people who know") [Sūrat al-Naml: 48-52].
= Then they awoke in the morning after that night in which they had turned away from Ṣāliḥ, with their faces yellow. Then they were certain of the punishment and knew that Ṣāliḥ had spoken the truth to them, and they sought him to kill him. But Ṣāliḥ withdrew fleeing from them, until he took refuge with a branch of Thamūd called "Banū Ghanm". He stayed with their lord, a man of them called "Nufayl", with the byname Abū Hadab, and he was a polytheist (mushrik); he hid him, so that they could not get hold of him. Then they attacked the companions of Ṣāliḥ in the morning and tortured them to make them point them to him. Then a man of the companions of Ṣāliḥ, called "Maydaʿ ibn Hirm", said: O prophet of Allah, they torture us to make us point them to you; shall we point them to you? He said: Yes! Then Maydaʿ ibn Hirm pointed them to him. When they knew Ṣāliḥ's whereabouts, they came to Abū Hudb and spoke with him, but he said to them: With me is Ṣāliḥ, and you have no way to him! Then they turned away from him and left him alone, and that which Allah had sent down upon them of punishment held them back from him. And they began to inform one another of what they saw in their faces when they awoke on Thursday, and that because their faces had turned yellow; then they awoke on Friday with their faces red, then they awoke on Saturday with their faces black. Until, when it was the night of Sunday, Ṣāliḥ withdrew from among them, with those who had submitted with him, to Syria, and he settled in Ramla in Palestine. And a man of his companions, called "Maydaʿ ibn Hirm", remained behind and settled in Qurḥ = and that is Wādī al-Qurā, and between Qurḥ and al-Ḥijr lay eighteen miles = He settled with their lord, a man called "ʿAmr ibn Ghanm", who had eaten of the flesh of the she-camel, but had not taken part in killing it. Maydaʿ ibn Hirm said to him: O ʿAmr ibn Ghanm, leave this land, for Ṣāliḥ has said: "Whoever remains in it perishes, and whoever leaves it is saved." Then ʿAmr said: I did not take part in her killing, and I did not consent to what was done to her! When it was the morning of Sunday, the cry seized them; there remained of them neither small nor great but that he perished, except a lame girl called "al-Zurayʿa", and she was al-Kalba, the daughter of al-Silq. She was a disbeliever, fiercely hostile to Ṣāliḥ. Then Allah loosed her legs after she had witnessed the entire punishment, and she ran as fast as anything has ever been seen to run, until she came to the people of Qurḥ and informed them of the punishment she had witnessed and what had befallen Thamūd of it; then she asked for water and was given to drink, and when she had drunk, she died.
14812 - Al-Ḥasan ibn Yaḥyā related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq informed us, he said: Maʿmar said: the one who heard al-Ḥasan informed me that he said: When Thamūd killed the she-camel, her foal went away until it climbed a hill, and said: O Lord, where is my mother? Then it uttered a cry, and then the cry descended and extinguished them.
14813 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to me, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Ḥasan, in a similar manner = except that he said: it climbed a hill.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of Qatāda: that Ṣāliḥ said to them, when they had killed the she-camel: Enjoy yourselves for three days! And he said to them: The sign of your destruction is that your faces will turn yellow, then on the second day red, then on the third day black; and so they became. When it was the third day and they were certain of destruction, they wrapped themselves in shrouds and embalmed themselves (with ḥanūṭ), then the cry seized them and extinguished them = Qatāda said: The one who killed the she-camel said to them: I will not kill her until you all consent! Then they began to enter upon the woman in her seclusion and said: Do you consent? Then she would say: Yes! And likewise upon the child, until they all consented, and then he killed her.
Al-Muthannā related to me, he said: Isḥāq related to us, he said: ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym, on the authority of Abū al-Zubayr, on the authority of Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh, who said: When the Prophet ﷺ passed by al-Ḥijr, he said: Do not ask for signs, for the people of Ṣāliḥ asked for them. She used to come to fetch water from this mountain pass and return by this mountain pass; then they rebelled against the command of their Lord and killed her. She used to drink their water on one day, and they drank her milk on one day. Then they killed her, and the cry seized them: Allah extinguished all who were under the canopy of heaven, except one man who was in the sacred precinct (Ḥaram) of Allah. It was said: Who is he? He said: Abū Righāl. And when he left the Ḥaram, that which befell his people befell him.
.... ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: Maʿmar said: And Ismāʿīl ibn Umayya informed me: that the Prophet ﷺ passed by the grave of Abū Righāl, and said: Do you know what this is? They said: Allah and His messenger know best! He said: This is the grave of Abū Righāl. They said: And who is Abū Righāl? He said: A man of Thamūd; he was in the Ḥaram of Allah, and the Ḥaram of Allah protected him from the punishment of Allah, and when he went out of it, that which befell his people befell him. That is why he was buried here, and with him a bough of gold was buried! Then the people descended and hastened to him with their swords, dug for him and brought out the bough.
14814 - ... ʿAbd al-Razzāq said: Maʿmar said: al-Zuhrī said: Abū Righāl is the forefather of Thaqīf.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym, on the authority of Jābir, who said: The Prophet ﷺ passed by al-Ḥijr = then he mentioned something similar, except that he said in his narration: They said: Who is he, O messenger of Allah? He said: Abū Righāl.
14815 - Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā related to us, he said: Muʿādh ibn Hishām related to us, he said: my father related to us, on the authority of Qatāda, who said: It was said that the red one of Thamūd who killed the she-camel was a child of fornication (zinā).
14816 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, he said: Ḥakkām related to us, he said: ʿAnbasa related to us, on the authority of Abū Isḥāq, who said: Abū Mūsā said: I came to the land of Thamūd and measured the place where the she-camel returned [from the water], and found it sixty cubits.
14817 - Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, and Ismāʿīl ibn Umayya informed me in a manner similar to this = that is to say in a manner similar to the narration of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUthmān ibn Khuthaym, on the authority of Jābir = he said: And the Prophet ﷺ passed by the grave of Abū Righāl; they said: And who is Abū Righāl? He said: The forefather of Thaqīf; he was in the Ḥaram when Allah destroyed his people; the Ḥaram of Allah protected him from the punishment of Allah, and when he went out of it, that which befell his people befell him. Then he was buried here, and with him a bough of gold was buried. He said: Then the people hastened to him, dug for him, until they brought out that bough.
= And al-Ḥasan said: The she-camel had one day and they had one day, and that harmed them.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā related to us, he said: Muḥammad ibn Thawr related to us, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, who said: When the Prophet ﷺ passed by al-Ḥijr, he said: Do not enter the dwelling places of those who wronged themselves, unless you are weeping, lest the same befall you as befell them! Then he said: This is the valley of the band (Wādī al-Nafar)! Then he covered his head and quickened his pace until he had crossed the valley.
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And as for His statement: (and do not touch her with harm) — He says: and do not touch the she-camel of Allah with the cutting of her hamstrings, nor with slaughter = (lest a painful punishment seize you) — that is to say: an agonizing one.
