Al Furqān

وَعَادًا وَثَمُودَ وَأَصْحَابَ الرَّسِّ وَقُرُونًا بَيْنَ ذَلِكَ كَثِيرًا

وَكُلًّا ضَرَبْنَا لَهُ الْأَمْثَالَ وَكُلًّا تَبَّرْنَا تَتْبِيرًا

38. “And the (tribes of) ‘Ad and Thamūd and the men of Ar-Rass, and many generations between them.”
39. “And unto each of them We did give examples, and every one (of them) We did destroy with utter extermination.”

The Arabic word /qurūn/ is the plural form of the word /qarn/ that, in fact, means a group of people who live together in a certain time. Also it is applied to 40 years up to 100 years. The Qur’anic word /tatbir/ means to lose dignity and respect and to get overthrown in a way that it leads to destruction.¹ So, in this verse, it says:

The tribe of ‘Ad is the people of Hūd, the Divine prophet, who was appointed in the land of ’Ahqaf, (Yemen). The tribe of Thamūd is the people of Salih, the Divine prophet, who was appointed in the land of Wad-il-Qura, a place between Medina and Damascus. There are many things cited about the people of Ar-Rass in commentaries: they are people of Shuayb (Jethro). Ar Rass is a city in Yamameh. Or it is a place in ’Antakiyah, Al-Zakakih, or Aras River in Iran.

But in the book ‘Uyūn-i-Akhbar ur-Rida we read: Imam Rida (as) said:

“A person asked Imam Ali (as) about them.

And Imam Ali (as) said:

‘After Noah Flood, a tree named ‘Shah Drakht’ (King Tree) was planted. People counted this tree holy and built 12 hamlets around it. The names of these hamlets were the names of Iranian months: Farwardin, Ordibihisht, Khordad, Tir, Murdad, Shahriwar, Mihr, ’Aban, ’Azar, Day, Bahman, Isfand.

Each month they held festival in one of them. Of course the festival in hamlet of ’Isfand was more splendorous and more people gathered. In that festival, they put fire to a tree and when its smoke went up into air, they began to cry and shed tear.

Allah sent them a prophet who guided and advised them, but they denied him. Their prophet cast curse on them and that holy tree got dried. Then they dug a deep well and threw Allah’s prophet into it, and in this way he was martyred.’” ²

But it is understood from the 180th sermon of Nahj-ul- Balaqah that they did not have only one prophet, for the Imam (as) said:

“Where are the people of the cities of Ar-Rass who killed the prophets and suspended the traditions of the Divine messengers and revived the traditions of the despots?...”

The next verse implies that Allah did not punish them astonishingly: but it says:

Allah answered their criticisms as was done about the criticisms upon the Prophet (S). Allah made divine ordinances clear for them and explained the truths of the religion. Allah warned them and retold them the stories and destiny of the former nations. But when none of these was effective the status was as the verse says:

Yes the divine way of treatment is to send messengers for guiding people and to destruct their rejecters.