Tafseer of The Heights · Al-A'raaf · 7:91
So the earthquake seized them, and they became within their home [corpses] fallen prone.
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 Allah: فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الرَّجْفَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا فِي دَارِهِمْ جَاثِمِينَ (91) (Then the earthquake seized them, so that they lay motionless, fallen down in their dwelling. (91))
Abū Jaʿfar said: He says: then the earthquake seized those who disbelieved among the people of Shuʿayb. I have already explained earlier the meaning of "the earthquake," namely that it is the shaking that is set in motion by the punishment of Allah. (16)
(So that they lay motionless, fallen down in their dwelling), upon their knees, dead and perished. (17)
And the description of the punishment with which Allah destroyed them was, as follows:
14863 - Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn related to me, saying: Aḥmad ibn al-Mufaḍḍal related to us, saying: Asbāṭ related to us, on the authority of al-Suddī: وَإِلَى مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا (And to Madyan their brother Shuʿayb), he said: Allah sent Shuʿayb to Madyan and to the inhabitants of al-Ayka = and "al-Ayka" is the thicket of trees = and they, in addition to their disbelief, gave short measure and weight. He called them, but they denied him, and he spoke to them what Allah has mentioned in the Qurʾān, and what they answered him. When they grew arrogant and denied him, they asked for the punishment. Thereupon Allah opened over them one of the gates of Hell (jahannam), and its heat destroyed them, so that neither shade nor water availed them. Then He sent a cloud in which there was a pleasant wind, and they felt the coolness of the wind and its pleasantness, and they called out to one another: "The canopy of cloud, seek it out!" When they had gathered beneath the cloud — their men, their women, and their children — it closed over them and destroyed them. That is His saying: فَأَخَذَهُمْ عَذَابُ يَوْمِ الظُّلَّةِ (Then the punishment of the day of the canopy of cloud seized them) [Surah al-Shuʿarāʾ: 189].
14864 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, he said: To the report about the story of Shuʿayb and the report about his people belongs what Allah has mentioned in the Qurʾān. They were a people who shortchanged the people in their measures and weights, in addition to their disbelief in Allah and their denial of their prophet. And he called them to Allah and His worship, and to abandoning the wronging of the people and the shortchanging of them in their measures and weights. He spoke to them in good counsel, and he was truthful: وَمَا أُرِيدُ أَنْ أُخَالِفَكُمْ إِلَى مَا أَنْهَاكُمْ عَنْهُ إِنْ أُرِيدُ إِلا الإِصْلاحَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُ وَمَا تَوْفِيقِي إِلا بِاللَّهِ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَإِلَيْهِ أُنِيبُ (And I do not wish to turn against you toward that which I forbid you. I desire only reform, as much as I am able. And my success lies only with Allah; upon Him I rely and to Him I turn in repentance.) [Hūd: 88]. Ibn Isḥāq said: And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ — according to what Yaʿqūb ibn Abī Salama related to me — said, when he mentioned Shuʿayb: "That is the orator among the prophets!" — because of the beauty of his retort to his people concerning what awaited them. When they denied him and threatened him with stoning (rajm) and expulsion from their land, and were arrogant toward Allah, the punishment of the day of the canopy of cloud seized them; truly, it was the punishment of a tremendous day. It has reached me that a man of the people of Madyan, named ʿAmr ibn Jalhāʾ, when he saw it, said:
O people, truly Shuʿayb is a messenger sent, so then let Sumayr and ʿImrān ibn Shaddād of you be abandoned.
Truly I see a dense rain-cloud, O people, that has risen up, that calls with a voice above the hard rocky ground of the valley. (18)
And truly, in it you will see nothing by the advancing forenoon of the morrow except al-Raqīm, who runs between the elevated grounds. (19)
And "Sumayr" and "ʿImrān" were their two soothsayers = and "al-Raqīm" was their dog. (20)
Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Ibn Isḥāq related to me (21), he said: It has reached me — and Allah knows best — that Allah made the heat prevail over them until they were thoroughly baked, and then brought about for them the canopy of cloud as a black cloud. When they saw it, they hurried toward it to seek relief in its coolness from the heat in which they were, until, when they had entered beneath it, it closed over them and they all perished. And Allah saved Shuʿayb and those who believed with him through His mercy.
14865 - Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama related to us, saying: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī related to me, saying: "Abū Jād," "Hawwaz," "Ḥuṭṭī," "Kalamūn," "Saʿfaṣ," and "Qurishat" are the names of the kings of Madyan, and their king on the day of the canopy of cloud, in the time of Shuʿayb, was "Kalamūn." The sister of Kalamūn said, bewailing him:
Kalamūn — his downfall has felled my pillar of support, in the midst of the dwelling place.
The lord of the people — there came upon him death by fire, in the midst of a canopy of cloud.
Until it was made into fire over them, their dwelling became like something that passes away into nothing. (23)
Footnotes: (16) See the explanation of "the earthquake" earlier, pp. 544, 545. (17) See the explanation of "lying motionless, fallen down" earlier, pp. 545, 546. (18) In the printed edition it reads: "truly, I see a cloud," and so it also reads in the Stories of the Prophets; in the manuscript is what has been adopted, and in al-Durr al-Manthūr it reads "ʿaynah," an error; the correct reading is what has been adopted. And "al-ghibya" (with fatḥa and sukūn): the heavy downpour of rain, and it has been said: it is a rain that is not abundant. He means here a cloud with a downpour. And "al-ṣammāna" and "al-ṣammān": hard ground with stones, alongside sand. (19) In the printed edition and the manuscript it reads: "and truly you, if you see," but the correct reading is what has been adopted; in the Stories of the Prophets it reads: "for truly one will not see in it," and in al-Durr al-Manthūr: "for truly one does not see." And in the printed edition it read: "in it nothing except al-Raqīm…," an addition that spoils the meter, which is not in the manuscript, and is perhaps from the typesetting. And "al-anjād" is the plural of "najd," the elevated ground. And "al-ḍaḥāʾ" (with fatḥa on the ḍād, lengthened) is like "al-ḍuḥā" (with ḍamma on the ḍād), namely when the day advances and nearly reaches the middle. And in the printed edition it read: "ḍaḥāt ghad." (20) The narration 14869 - al-Durr al-Manthūr 3: 103, and Stories of the Prophets of al-Thaʿlabī: 144. (21) In the printed edition and the manuscript it reads: "Abū Saḥq," which is an evident error. (22) In the printed edition and the manuscript it reads: "Kalamūn," thus; and in the History 1: 99, and in the remaining books "Kalaman"; I have left it here in its state. (23) The narration 14871 - "Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī": I have found no one designated by this kunya, but Abū Jaʿfar has transmitted a similar report in his History, in the mention of these kings (1: 99), with an isnād that explains this isnād; he said: "Ibn Ḥumayd related to us, saying: Salama ibn al-Faḍl related to us, on the authority of Yaḥyā ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, on the authority of al-Qāsim ibn Salmān, on the authority of al-Shaʿbī, he said: Abjad, Hawwaz, Ḥuṭṭī, Kalaman, Saʿfaṣ, and Qurishat were tyrannical kings…" And "Yaḥyā ibn al-ʿAlāʾ al-Bajalī," his kunya is "Abū Salama," and it is also said "Abū ʿAmr." I have not found his kunya as "Abū ʿAbd Allāh," but the apparent sense of this isnād makes it likely that "Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī" is the same as "Yaḥyā ibn al-ʿAlāʾ al-Bajalī," and Allah knows best. And concerning "Yaḥyā ibn al-ʿAlāʾ al-Bajalī," Aḥmad said: "a liar who fabricates traditions." He has a biography in al-Tahdhīb, and in al-Kabīr 4/2/297, and in Ibn Abī Ḥātim 4/2/179. And this report has been transmitted by al-Baghawī (in the margin of Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr 3: 520), and the Stories of the Prophets of al-Thaʿlabī: 144, on the authority of Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Bajalī, and in all of them it reads "Kalaman"; I have added from it what is between the brackets, but I have written it as its related words appear in the manuscript. And in al-Baghawī it is transmitted: "Kalaman felled my pillar of support," and in the Stories of the Prophets: "Kalaman, he felled my pillar of support," and I do not know what this is!!
