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wa-sʾalhum ʿani l-qaryati llatī kānat ḥāḍirata l-baḥri ʾidh yaʿdūna fī s-sabti ʾidh taʾtīhim ḥītānuhum yawma sabtihim shurraʿan wa-yawma lā yasbitūna lā taʾtīhim ka-dhālika nablūhum bi-mā kānū yafsuqūna
Ask them about the town that was situated on the seaside, when they violated the Sabbath, when their fish would come to them on the Sabbath day, visibly on the shore, but on days when they were not keeping Sabbath they would not come to them. Thus did We test them because of the transgressions they used to commit.
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah al-‘Araf – Verse 163
163 . “And (O Muhammad) ask them about the town that was by the sea, when they exceeded (the limits) of the Sabbath when their fish came to them on the day of their Sabbath,
appearing on the surface of the water; but on the day they did not keep Sabbath, they (the fish) did not come unto them. Thus did We try them for the transgressions they used to commit.”
By the command of Allah, hunting fish on the Sabbath was forbidden for this group of the Children of Israel who were living on the bank of the sea. (Maybe, it was the Red Sea, beside the land of Palestine, which is known’Ilāf Harbour today). But, on that very day, fish were seen with a more tremendous amount, so that people’s mouths watered. This circumstance was a divine trial for them. Those people exceeded the law of Allah deceitfully, and, by making pools on the bank of the sea and banning the way of the fish therein, they captured them in those pools on Saturdays, the which were easily hunted on Sundays. Then, they claimed that, according to the commandment, they had not hunted them on the Sabbath.
The verse says:
Therefore, by legal tricks and deceit, the real feature of sins may not be changed, (like making pools on the seaside for hunting fish on the following day). In one of his sermons, Hadrat Ali (as) has intensively criticized the justification of sins, and the justification of ‘wine’ with ‘date liquor’ (nabith), ‘bribery’ with present, and ‘usury’ with ‘transaction’.1
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