Page 344
qāla ʿammā qalīlin la-yuṣbiḥunna nādimīna
Said He, ‘In a little while they will become regretful.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
23Al-Mu’minūnالمؤمنونVerse 40 of 118
The Believers23. Al-Mu’minūnالمؤمنون
Al Mu’minūn
The Believers
MeccanVerse 40 of 118
23Al-Mu’minūnالمؤمنونVerse 40 of 118
The Believers
Said He, ‘In a little while they will become regretful.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-Mu’minun - Verses 39-41
39. “ (Their prophet) said: ‘My Lord! Help me against what they belie!’.”
40. “ (Allah) said: ‘In a little while they will be remorseful’.”
41. “Then the Blast overtook them with justice, and We made them into a scum. So away with the unjust people!”
Prophets Only Rely On Allah
(“O my Lord...”)
The word ‘Rabb’ is one of the best words to use in prayer and supplication. After the word Allah, the most frequent word applied in the Qur’an is ‘Rabb’. When the conceit and rebelliousness of the people of Thamud had exceeded its limit, they got more brazen in their unbelief and indecency attacking the character of the prophet himself and calling his prophetic arguments, miracles and revelations lies. The Divine prophet invoked to Allah, as the verse says:
“ (Their prophet) said: ‘My Lord! Help me against what they belie!’”
He (as) invoked, indicating that they did and said whatever they could and they accused me in whatever they desired, but You, O’ Lord, help me. The next verse is an answer to him, it says:
“ (Allah) said: ‘In a little while they will be remorseful’.”
They will become regretful when it would be of no benefit and there will be no way of return for them. And this is what happened, as the next verse says:
“Then the Blast overtook them with justice...”
The deadly thunder descended with a terrible and horrible sound and destroyed everywhere. It piled up their corpses and it was so sudden and devastating that they did not have even a chance to escape from their houses and so they were buried in them, as the Holy Qur’an says:
“...and We made them into a scum...”
So away with the wrongdoing lot! These are the people of the Thamud who had defied their prophet Salih, and killed the female camel that, as a miracle of their prophet, had come out of the middle of a mountain. The verse concludes:
“...So away with the unjust people!”
Points to Note
1- What Does ‘Sayhah’ mean? The Arabic word /sayhah/ (here, the Cry) philologically means a very loud noise that comes out of the mouth of a human or animal. This noise is however not particular to them and is applied to every loud noise. We read in the Holy Qur’an that some sinful nations were destroyed by it. A few of them are the nations of Thamud, Lot2and Shu‘ayb.3 It is understood from other verses of the Qur’an that the punishment of the people of Thamud was occurred by a thunderbolt.
For example, it says:
“But if they turn away, men say: ‘I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderboltof ‘Ad and Thamud.” 4
This verse shows that the meaning of ‘sayhah’ is the terrible sound of thunderbolt. Can the terrifying noise of thunderbolt kill a crowd of people? The answer to this question is surely positive, for we know that if sound waves exceed a certain limit, they can break building glass, and even destroy some buildings and disable some organs of the human body. When an airplane breaks the sound barrier some people fall unconscious or some women abort their fetuses, and it breaks all of the glass in buildings of the locality.
It is natural that if the intensity of acoustic waves increases to certain levels, it can easily cause deadly disorders in the nervous system, brain vessels and in the heart, and it can kill people. Of course, according to the Holy Qur’an, the end of this world would be with such a Cry, where it says:
“They await but a single Cry, which will overtake them while they are disputing”. 5
It is similar to Resurrection which begins with an awakening Blast. The Qur’an says:
“There would be naught but a single cry, when behold! They shall all be brought before Us.” 6
2. The Islamic narrations say that it was only one person who killed the camel, however, the Holy Qur’an attributes the crime to the entire unbelieving nation who were Salih’s opponents and it uses plural pronoun, where it says:
“So they hamstrung her...” 7
This is because the Qur’an counts inward contentment with an ideological affair and maintaining a relationship with it as participating in it. In fact, the plot to kill the animal did not have an individual aspect, for even the person who had committed the offence did not only rely on his power, but he was encouraged by the power and support of the group. Certainly, such a task is not individual but collective and communal. Amir-ul-Mu’mineen Ali (as) once said:
“The Camel of Thamud was slaughtered by one person, but Allah punished all of the Thamud people, for they all were content with this offence.” 8
There are many narrations with the same meaning or like it from the Prophet (S) and the Imams (as) about this subject. They show the extraordinary importance that Islam gives to ideological commonality and support as well as acting in harmony with a program. Here are a few of them: The Prophet (S) said:
“Someone who watches and observes an activity but dislikes it, is like a person who is absent when that activity is being performed; and someone who was absent at the time an activity was being performed but was inwardly content with it, is like a person who was present at the time of that activity and had taken part in it.” 9
Imam Ali ibn Musa-ar-Rida (as) once said:
“Whenever someone is murdered in the east and another person in the west is satisfied with the murder of that individual, this person is an abettor of the murderer before Allah.” 10
Imam Ali (as) said:
“One who is satisfied with an activity of a group is like a person who has taken part in that activity, but someone who has taken a practical part in the activity has committed two sins, one is the sin of committing the activity and the other is the sin of being satisfied with it.” 11
Islam sees ideological and intellectual affinities as very profound and extensive to the extent that they are not limited by time and place. A close reading of this meaningful speech of Imam Ali (as) in Nahj-ul-Balaqah will be enough: When Imam Ali (as) overcame the enemy in the War of Jamal, and his comrades were happy with the victory of Islam over ignorance and division, one of them said:
“I wish my brother had participated in this war, so he, too, would have seen what success and victory Allah had given you.”
Imam Ali (as) replied:
“Tell me! Was your brother with us (in his heart)?”
The man said:
“Yes.”
The Imam said:
“In that case, he was with us.”
Then he (as) continued:
“Rather, in this army of ours, even those persons were also present who are still in the loins of men and wombs of women! Shortly, time will bring them out and faith will get strength through them.” 12
3. There is a relationship between the Qur’anic word /’itraf/ (life of the aristocracy) and the infidelity that denies the meeting with Allah.
Verily, it is true. Usually those who live this type of life enjoy a larger degree of freedom to pursue whatever kinds of sensual gratification and animal pleasure they wish. Accepting the Divine guardianship and the Resurrection would be a barrier to this kind of life, disturbing both the consciences of these aristocrats and making people brave enough to stand up against them. They, therefore, remove the yoke of Allah’s servitude from their necks and deny the Origin and the Resurrection. As we read in the verses above, they insist that worldly, physical life is the only life and there is nothing after that, calling a liar whoever claims the contrary.
They believe that this is the only moment they have, and as such they must pick a flower from every garden and enjoy themselves on every occasion in these few days of life! In this manner, they justify their offenses and wrong actions. Moreover, to live such luxurious lives without usurping others’ rights is usually impossible. Thus, they had to deny the Resurrection and the mission of the prophets to maintain their position and their lifestyle. We see in our daily lives that the majority of those who live luxurious lives turn their backs, and look down their noses at every one.
These miserable blind-hearted people, who are at the mercy of their whims and caprices, go out of Allah’s shadow of obedience and grace whenever they wear the yoke of bondage to lusts and low desires, and open themselves up to becoming the slaves of other slaves. Such persons, who are usually rich and corrupt, have dark hearts, unclean souls, and degenerate thoughts. Their grand view of life may seem interesting to some people, but when one looks closely, it appears terrible and ugly, for they are agitated and disturbed by the absence of the peace caused by sin, the fear of death, and the decline of blessings.
In Majma’-ul-Bayan, volume 5, page 168, Tabarsi narrates an interesting view of one of the interpreters of the Qur’an following verse 49 where saying:
“The worldly possessors of favour are led astray and perish, for verily ignorance and negligence overcome them and they care about nothing but this world and its pleasures.”
This fact is discerned in rich and prosperous countries where most of them are ridden with corruption. They not only do not care for the oppressed of the world but also they make new plans every day to exploit them and their resources. Consequently their blessings are temporarily removed by wars and painful events that Allah causes to awaken them.
4. What is Qutha’ (scum)?
In the verses above, we read that the people of Thamud were made into /qua’/ (scum) by the thunderbolt. The Arabic term /qua’/ originally means dried plants in the form of an untidy pile of muck that float on floodwaters. In addition, the scum produced in a boiling pot is also called /qua/. Likening their corpses to /qua/ indicates their extreme weakness, frailty, defeat, and worthlessness, because straws on the floodwater are lighter and more trivial than anything there is. They have no choice and destination, for after the passing and subsiding of a flood no trace of them remains.
5. It is noteworthy that the last sentence of the verses above no longer particularize the issue to the people of Thamud, it now becomes generalized and Allah says:
“...So away with the unjust people!”
This is, in fact, the conclusion of all these verses, which means that what has been stated up to this point, the denial and negation of Divine signs and the denial of the Resurrection and their painful consequences, are not particular to a certain people, rather, all oppressors in the course of history share the same characteristics and the same fate.
Footnotes