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fa-ʾaʿraḍū fa-ʾarsalnā ʿalayhim sayla l-ʿarimi wa-baddalnāhum bi-jannatayhim jannatayni dhawātay ʾukulin khamṭin wa-ʾathlin wa-shayʾin min sidrin qalīlin
But they disregarded [the path of Allah], so We unleashed upon them a violent flood and replaced their two gardens with two gardens bearing bitter fruit, tamarisk, and sparse lote trees.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah As-Saba- Verse 16
16. “But they turned away (from Allah), so We loosed on them the Flood of ‘Arim, and We gave them in exchange for their two gardens, two gardens bearing bitter produce and tamarisk-bushes, and here and there a few lote-trees.”
Through this verse, the Qur’an implicitly says that instead of being thankful of Allah, they turned away from Him. They counted the bounties of Allah insignificant. They considered the cultivation and security of their land very simple. They, forsaking the affluence of bounties, became neglectful of the remembrance of Allah. Their rich people boasted to the poor and imagined them as some bothers for their own status. The explanation of this will be dealt with in commentary of later verses.
It was here that the lash of punishment was whipped on their bodies, as the Qur’an says:
The Arabic term /‘arim/ is derived from /‘aramah/ in the sense of harshness, ill-temper, and strictness, and flood being modified by it, points to its harshness and destructiveness, and the application of the phrase /sayl-al-‘arim/ (the Flood of ‘Arim) is, so to speak, of the kind of addition of modified to the modifier. Some commentators have rendered the Arabic term /‘arim/ into field-mice which, as a result of making holes in this dam, caused its destruction.
Lisan-ul-‘Arab introduces different meanings about the Arabic term /‘arim/ including: ‘a tiresome flood, barriers, which are built between valleys for stopping water, and also a big field-mouse’.40 Then the Qur’an explains the later situation of this land as follows:
The Qur’anic word /’ukul/ means any kind of victuals. The Arabic term /xamt/ means a bitter plant. The Arabic word /’athl/ is in the sense of ‘tamarisk-bush’. And, thus, instead of those masses of green trees there remained only a few wild- deserted trees with a very low value that, perhaps, the most important of them was lote-tree a few of which were found among them. The statement of these three kinds of tree which remained in that ruined region refers to three different groups of trees a part of which were harmful, some of them were useless, and some of them were of very little benefit, and on the whole they had their turning away, ingratitude and Divine punishment as a sequel, and flood, earthquake, tempest, thunder and lightning are not casual.
Footnotes