سورة الأعراف

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): وَ سْئَلْهُمْ عَنِ الْقَرْیَةِ الَّتِی کانَتْ حاضِرَةَ الْبَحْرِ إِذْ یَعْدُونَ فِی السَّبْتِ إِذْ تَأْتِیهِمْ حِیتانُهُمْ یَوْمَ سَبْتِهِمْ شُرَّعاً وَ یَوْمَ لا یَسْبِتُونَ لا تَأْتِیهِمْ [Ask them about the town that stood by the sea, when they transgressed on the Sabbath, when their fish came to them on the day of their Sabbath appearing on the surface, and on the day they did not keep Sabbath they did not come to them] — [the town mentioned in this verse] is a town that belonged to the Children of Israel. This town was located near the sea, and water flowed into it both at high tide and at low tide. The water would enter the rivers, and the fish would come out of the sea [and enter the rivers] until the water reached the far end of their cultivated fields. Allah had forbidden them from fishing on Saturday, but they would set their nets in the rivers on Saturday night to catch fish with them, and the fish would come out on Saturday and would not come out on Sunday. This is the very word of Allah who said: إِذْ تَأْتِیهِمْ حِیتَانُهُمْ یَوْمَ سَبْتِهِمْ شُرَّعاً وَ یَوْمَ لاَ یَسْبِتُونَ لاَ تَأْتِیهِمْ [when their fish came to them on the day of their Sabbath appearing on the surface, and on the day they did not keep Sabbath they did not come to them]. Their scholars forbade them from this act, but the people did not act upon their counsel. So they were transformed [changed] into monkeys and swine.

Ali ibn Ibrahim (may Allah have mercy on him): وَ سْئَلْهُمْ عَنِ الْقَرْیَةِ الَّتِی کانَتْ حاضِرَةَ الْبَحْرِ [And ask them about the town which stood by the sea]; this town belonged to the Children of Israel, who lived beside the sea. At the time of high tide, the sea water would enter their streams and their fields, and the fish would come from the sea toward them, and at the time of low tide, when the water receded, the fish would remain behind for them. Allah the Exalted had forbidden them to hunt fish on Saturday, but on Friday night they would set up nets in the streams and on Sunday they would take the fish — so in reality they were hunting on both Saturday and Sunday. The scholars of the Children of Israel forbade them from this, but they paid no heed, and Allah transformed them into monkeys and pigs.

Imam Sajjad (peace be upon him): They were a people who lived on the shore of a sea, and Allah and His prophets had forbidden them from fishing on Saturday. They devised a trick to make lawful for themselves what Allah had forbidden. They dug channels and built pathways so that fish would enter through them into pools they had dug and would not be able to come out of those pools to return to the river. On Saturday the fish moved about under Allah's protection and entered those channels until they reached the pools and streams. When the evening of that day arrived, they wanted to return to the deep waters to be safe from the fishermen, but because the way was blocked they could not. So they would catch them on Sunday and say: "We did not catch fish on Saturday; we caught fish on Sunday." These enemies of Allah lied — rather, they were catching them from the pools they had made on Saturday. Their income and wealth from this grew great, and they enjoyed women and other pleasures. The number of the people of that town reached over eighty thousand, and seventy thousand of them were doing this, while the rest opposed them — just as Allah has recounted this story: وَ سْئَلْهُمْ عَنِ الْقَرْیَةِ الَّتِی کَانَتْ حَاضِرَةَ الْبَحْرِ [And ask them about the town which stood by the sea]. A group of them undertook to admonish and forbid them from that deed, warned them of Allah's punishment, and cautioned them against the retribution of Allah's severe chastisement. They answered their exhortation and admonition thus: لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْمًا اللهُ مُهْلِکُهُمْ [Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is going to destroy] because of their sins with the punishment of istilam (uprooting and eradicating) or afflict with a severe punishment?! [Leave them to themselves so they may perish!]. (Al-A'raf/164) The admonishers answered: مَعْذِرَةً إِلَی رَبِّکُمْ [As an excuse to your Lord] — we have been charged with commanding the good and forbidding the evil. We forbid the evil so that Allah may know our opposition to them and our aversion and hatred for their deeds. They said: وَ لَعَلَّهُمْ یَتَّقُونَ [and perhaps they may guard against evil] — we admonish them, perhaps admonition and counsel will have an effect on them and they will refrain from this sin and beware of its penalty and punishment. Allah the Mighty and Majestic says: [Yes], when they rebelled against what they had been forbidden. (Al-A'raf/166) — that is, they deviated, turned away, and refused to accept the prohibition and counsel. We said to them: "Become despised apes." (Al-A'raf/166) — that is, they were cast far from good and set aside. When those ten thousand and more saw that the seventy thousand would not accept their counsel and paid no heed to their warnings, they withdrew from them and went to another village near their own. They said: "We hate for Allah's punishment to descend upon them while we are among them." One night passed over them, and Allah the Mighty and Majestic transformed all of them into monkeys. The gate of the city remained shut; no one went out and no one entered. This news reached the people of the other villages, so they set off toward them, climbed the walls of the city, and looked upon them. They saw that all of them, men and women, had been transformed into monkeys and were in great commotion, writhing among one another. These onlookers recognised their acquaintances, relatives and friends and would say to some of them: "O man! Are you so-and-so? O woman! Are you so-and-so?" Then tears would flow from their eyes and they would nod their heads answering: "Yes." They remained in that state for three days. Then Allah the Mighty and Majestic sent upon them rain and wind and drove them into the sea, and after three days no transformed being remained. In reality, those animals you see which have their form are only likenesses — they are neither the very ones who were transformed nor from their offspring. Indeed Allah the Mighty and Majestic transformed them because of their fishing. So how will be the state of the one who killed the children of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) and trampled their sanctity!? Indeed Allah the Mighty and Majestic, although He has not transformed them in this world, the punishment prepared for them in the Hereafter is many times greater than that transformation. If this transformed people, after committing their ugly deed, had asked at the divine threshold, by the rank of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and his pure family, that He preserve them, Allah would have prevented them from committing the deed and continuing in it — just as the people of pride and vainglory, if they call upon Allah by the rank of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) and the family of Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family), Allah preserves them from pride and heedlessness. But Allah the Mighty and Majestic did not inspire this in them and did not grant them the success for it, and what had been decreed in the divine knowledge and in the Preserved Tablet concerning them was fulfilled.

Imam Ali / Imam Baqir (peace be upon him) said: In the book of Ali (peace be upon him) we found this: that a people from the inhabitants of Ayla were from the people of Thamud, and it is a city that lies on the shore of the Red Sea near Sham. The fish used to come out on Saturday so that Allah might test their obedience in that matter. On Saturday the fish would appear among them and in front of their doors, in their rivers and their streams, and they would catch the fish and eat them. Then, for a long period which Allah knew, they kept repeating this, and the rabbis (scholars) did not restrain them from this act and did not forbid them from catching those fish. Then Satan cast into a group of them the following suggestion: In truth, you were only forbidden from eating fish on Saturday, not from catching them. So they would catch the fish on Saturday and eat them on other days. A group of them said: "On Saturday we shall catch them," and they disobeyed Allah's command. Another group of them, who were guided, said: We forbid you from the punishment and chastisement of Allah, lest you commit what is contrary to His command. Another group withdrew and chose silence and did not advise them, and they said to the group who was advising them: "Why do you counsel a people whom Allah will destroy or afflict with a severe punishment?" The advising group said: مَعْذِرَةً إِلَی رَبِّکُمْ وَ لَعَلَّهُمْ یَتَّقُونَ [As an excuse before your Lord, and that perhaps they may guard themselves]. Allah the Mighty and Majestic said: But when they forgot the reminders that were given to them (Al-A'raf/165) — meaning, when they abandoned that which they had been counselled with, they continued in sin and disobedience. So the group who had advised them said: "By Allah, we shall not remain with you in this city in which you disobey Allah, out of fear that the punishment may descend upon you and take us along with you." He said: "Then they left the city, out of fear that the punishment would descend upon them. They alighted near the city and passed the night beneath the sky until morning. When the friends of Allah, who had obeyed Allah's command, entered the morning, they set out to see what had befallen the people of disobedience. They headed toward the gate of the city; the gate of the city was locked. They knocked upon it, but no one answered them, and no sound was heard from anyone. They placed a ladder against the wall of the city and sent one of their men up upon it. He looked into the city and suddenly his eye fell upon monkeys howling." That man said to his companions: "O people! By Allah, I see a strange thing!" They said: "What do you see?" He said: "I see that our people have been transformed into monkeys who are howling and have tails." So they broke the gate. That group (the monkeys) recognized their relationship with the humans, but the humans did not recognize their relationship with the monkeys. Those people said to the monkeys: "Did we not forbid you?" Then Ali (peace be upon him) said: "By Him who split the seed and created the soul; I indeed know the counterparts of that group from this ummah, and they cannot deny this or alter it; rather, they abandoned that which they were commanded, and after that, they fell into disagreement with one another." And Allah the Mighty and Majestic said: Far away with the wrongdoing people [from Allah's mercy]! (Al-Mu'minun/41). Then Allah said: أَنجَیْنَا الَّذِینَ یَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ السُّوءِ وَ أَخَذْنَا الَّذِینَ ظَلَمُواْ بِعَذَابٍ بَئِیسٍ بِمَا کَانُواْ یَفْسُقُونَ [We saved those who forbade evil and seized those who did wrong with a grievous punishment because they transgressed].

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): They took up basins and drove the fish into them in such a way that they could not get out, and on Sunday they would catch them.

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): Ikrima said: I went in to Ibn Abbas, and before he lost his sight he was reading the Quran and weeping. I said, "May my soul be your ransom! What has made you weep?" He said, "This verse: وَ سْئَلْهُمْ عَنِ الْقَرْیَةِ الَّتِی کانَتْ حاضِرَةَ الْبَحْرِ إِذْ یَعْدُونَ فِی السَّبْتِ [And ask them about the town which stood by the sea, when they exceeded the limits of the Sabbath]." He said, "Do you know Ayla?" I said, "What is Ayla?" He said, "A town in which there were some Jewish people, and Allah had forbidden them the hunting of fish on the Sabbath. On the Sabbath the fish would come to the seashore in shoals, white and fat like pregnant she-camels, but on other days the inhabitants could not find them and could not catch them except with hardship and toil. Then one of them, on the Sabbath, caught a fish, tied it to a stake and sank it in the water, and the next day took it out and ate it. Some families among them did the same, catching fish and roasting them, and when their neighbours smelled the roasted fish, they too did the same, and the number of these people grew large. So they split into groups: one group ate, one group forbade [it], and one group said: لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْماً اللهُ مُهْلِکُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ [Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy or to punish]. And the group that forbade it said, 'We warn them of the wrath of Allah and His punishment, lest they be swallowed by the earth, or stones be hurled upon them, or they suffer some other punishment. By Allah! We will not stay in one place with you,' and they went out of the town gate. When they returned the next morning and knocked at the gate, no one answered them. One of them climbed up the wall of the town and said, 'By Allah! They are monkeys with tails, and they are making noise.' Then he came down and opened the door, and the people went in after them. The monkeys recognised their human relatives, but the humans did not recognise their monkey relatives. A male monkey would go to his relative and rub himself against him and cling to him, and his relative would say, 'Are you so-and-so?' The monkey would nod with his head: yes, and would weep. Likewise a female monkey would go to her relative and cling to her, and her relative would say, 'Are you so-and-so?' She would nod with her head: yes, and would weep. I hear Allah the Exalted saying: أَنْجَیْنَا الَّذِینَ یَنْهَوْنَ عَنِ السُّوءِ وَ أَخَذْنَا الَّذِینَ ظَلَمُوا بِعَذابٍ بَئِیسٍ بِما کانُوا یَفْسُقُونَ [We saved those who forbade evil, and We seized those who did wrong with a grievous punishment because they transgressed]. I do not know what the third group did. How much wrong and ugly conduct we have seen and not forbidden!" I said to Ibn Abbas, "May I be your ransom! Do you not see that they disapproved of their evil deed and regarded the sin as bad, when they said: لِمَ تَعِظُونَ قَوْماً اللهُ مُهْلِکُهُمْ أَوْ مُعَذِّبُهُمْ عَذاباً شَدِیداً [Why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment]?" He was pleased with this saying of mine, and ordered two thick cloaks for me and clothed me in them.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): There was a town on the seashore. They said to their prophet: "If you are truthful, let our Lord transform us into jirrith fish." Suddenly that town, during the night, sank into the middle of the sea, and each of them was transformed into a jirrith fish, such that a rider could enter into the mouth of that fish.

Imam Ali (peace be upon him): Two communities from the Children of Israel were transformed: the community whose work was in the sea was turned into fish, and the community that worked on land was transformed into lizards.

Ibn Abbas (may Allah have mercy on him): شُرَّعاً means appearing on the surface of the water.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him): The Jews were commanded to abstain from fishing on Friday, but they abstained on Saturday instead.