سورة البقرة

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): [What is meant by the People of the Sabbath in the verse] is a people who were transformed; they were the inhabitants of a village called "Ayla" which was by the seashore.

Imam Baqir (peace be upon him): [Allah] commanded every prophet to establish and carry out a path and a practice. Among the path and practice that the Mighty and Majestic Allah commanded Musa (peace be upon him) to establish was that He appointed the Sabbath [Saturday] for them. Accordingly, whoever honored Saturday and, out of fear of Allah, did not dare to treat it as lawful [did not fish on it], Allah would admit him into Paradise; and whoever disrespected the sanctity of that day and treated as lawful what Allah had forbidden on it [fishing], the Mighty and Majestic Allah would admit him into the Fire. [But they committed the sin] when they trapped fish on Saturday [in pits they dug by the seashore] and then ate them. Allah became angry with them for this — without their having associated partners with the Merciful or doubted what Musa (peace be upon him) had brought [rather, only because of this sin].

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): They (the People of the Sabbath) lived on the seashore, and Allah and His prophets forbade them from fishing on Saturday. So they resorted to a trick to make lawful what Allah had forbidden them. They dug channels and made passages leading to pools, arranged so that fish could enter through those channels but could not find their way out when they wanted to return. So on Saturday, the fish, moving in safety under Allah's protection, would come and enter the channels and end up in the pools and ponds. When evening came that day, the fish would try to return to the sea to be safe from those who caught them, but when they tried to return they could not, and they would remain that night in a place from which they could be taken without any fishing [on the forbidden day], being trapped there and unable to escape. Then [the people] would take them on Sunday and say, "We did not fish on Saturday" — until their wealth grew greatly through this, and they indulged themselves with women. The population of that town was a little over eighty thousand; seventy thousand of them did this, while the rest disapproved of it. A group among them admonished the wrongdoers, but they refused [to listen], so that group withdrew from them to another village.

Imam Askari (peace be upon him): When they fished on it (Saturday), [We transformed them].

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): Musa (peace be upon him) forbade fishing on Saturday.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The Jews were commanded to refrain from fishing on Friday, but they fished on Friday [against Allah's command] and refrained from it on Saturday instead; for this reason Allah made fishing forbidden to them on Saturday.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): They said: "Saturday is lawful for us; it was only made unlawful for our forefathers, and they were punished for treating it as lawful."

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): Those apes were a group [from Banu Israel] who lived by the sea. They transgressed on the Sabbath [against Allah's command] and hunted fish, so Allah transformed them into apes.

Imam Kazim (peace be upon him): Those apes were the same Jews who disobeyed Allah's command on the Sabbath, so Allah transformed them into apes.

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): After the disobedience of the people of the Sabbath, Allah transformed them into apes. Those who recognized them, when they came among them, would say to them, "Are you so-and-so?" He would nod his head with tears welling in his eyes, meaning "Yes, it is me." This went on for three days; then Allah sent a [severe] wind and rain that swept all of them into the sea, and no transformed one remained after the three days. As for what you see today resembling their form, these are only creatures like them, not those very ones [or their offspring]. He then said (peace be upon him): Allah transformed these people for hunting fish, so how do you think the condition is, before Allah the Mighty and Majestic, of one who killed the children of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) and violated his sanctity? Allah the Exalted did not transform them in this world, but what is prepared for them of the punishment of the hereafter is many times over the punishment of transformation. He then said (peace be upon him): Indeed, if those who transgressed on the Sabbath, when they intended their evil deed, had asked their Lord by the station of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his pure family to protect them from that, He would have protected them; and likewise those who forbade them, had they asked Allah the Mighty and Majestic to protect them by the station of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his pure family, He would have protected them. But Allah the Mighty and Majestic did not inspire them with this, nor did He grant them success in it, so Allah's knowledge unfolded in them according to what had been written in the Preserved Tablet.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): They were transformed for three days, then they died and left no offspring of their own. Today's apes, the pig, and other transformed creatures found today are like them [not their offspring], and it is not permissible to eat their meat.

The Prophet (peace be upon him and his family): There will be a people who spend their nights drinking wine, amusement and song; then suddenly, one night, they are transformed and wake as apes and pigs. That is His saying: "Beware that you transgress as the people of the Sabbath transgressed" - He had given them respite [to repent], but they only increased in wickedness ... Allah seized them at night while they were heedless. That is His saying: "Beware that what befell those who transgressed and disobeyed [Allah's wrath and anger] befalls you too."

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): Allah transformed them as punishment for their deeds (the people of the Sabbath), and they howled like animals. They remained three days without eating, drinking or reproducing. Then Allah the Exalted destroyed them: a wind came and blew them into the water. Allah never transformed a nation without destroying it. So today's apes and pigs are not their offspring; rather, those people were transformed into the form of these creatures. All Muslims agree that none among apes and pigs are of the children of Adam (peace be upon him); had they been the offspring of the transformed, they would be counted among Bani Adam [which they are not].

Imam Rida (peace be upon him): [Allah] made the ape forbidden [to eat], for it was transformed just as the pig was. He made it a lesson and admonition, and a sign for people that a group of humans was once transformed into its likeness. [Allah] placed in the ape a resemblance to man, so that it would be a sign that it is among the creation who incurred [Allah's] wrath.

Imam Askari (peace be upon him): They are kept far from all good.