Al Ḥijr

وَإِن كَانَ أَصْحَابُ الاَيْكَةِ لَظَالِمِينَ

فَانتَقَمْنَا مِنْهُمْ وإِنَّهُمَا لَبِاِمَامٍ مُّبِينٍ

78. “And verily, the inhabitants of ’Aykah were certainly unjust.”
79. “So We inflicted retribution on them and they are both, indeed, on a roadway manifest (in front of your eyes).”

The Arabic word /’aykah/ means a small thick forest in which trees and their branches are often intertwined with one another. The objective of ‘the inhabitants of ’Aykah’ is the people of Hadrat Shu‘ayb, who used to live in a region with moderate weather and full of trees, somewhere between Hij az and Sham (Syria). A quotation from the blissful Prophet (S) indicates that ‘the people of Madyan’ and ‘the people of ’Aykah’ were two nations whose prophet was Shu‘ayb and both of them disbelieved.

The verse says:

“And verily, the inhabitants of ’Aykah were certainly unjust.”

However, each of these two nations received a different kind of Divine punishment. The former was entangled in the punishment of ‘the Day of Shadow’ and the latter received ‘the punishment of Blast’.¹⁰ Incidentally, as Allah owes nothing to anyone, whatever we receive from Him must be considered as a gift. But, in case of the Divine punishment, as His chastisement is the consequence of our own faults and sins and what we deserve, the word retribution is usually employed.

The verse says:

“So We inflicted retribution on them and they are both, indeed, on a roadway manifest (in front of your eyes).”

The oppressors must know that their vice and tyranny will be depicted for others throughout history. Hence, we must design and plan roads in such a way as to try to expose historical sites within the reach of the eye-sight of the passengers.

Footnotes

1. 10. Tafsir-ul-Furqan, taken from Durr-ul-Manthūr, vol. 4, p. 103