al-Dhāriyāt 51:43-45

Wa fī Thamūda idh qīla lahum tamattaʿū ḥattā ḥīn · Fa-ʿataw ʿan amri rabbihim fa-akhadhat-humu'l-ṣāʿiqatu wa hum yanẓurūn · Fa-ma'staṭāʿū min qiyāmin wa mā kānū muntaṣirīn "And in Thamūd too — when it was said to them, 'Enjoy yourselves for a while.' They grew insolent against their Lord's command; and the thunderbolt seized them while they looked on. They could neither rise to their feet nor save themselves."

The narrative of Thamūd was treated in detail in the discussion of al-Shams 91/11-15; what the Qurʾān gives, what report adds, and the historical frame were given separately. I do not repeat it. A summary of what was recorded there: Thamūd is a people for whom there is a record in independent sources (Assyrian records, Greek and Latin geographers); the description "they carved houses out of the mountains" is associated with the region of al-Ḥijr, but the monumental façades standing today belong to the Nabataean period and are not the buildings of Thamūd; and for those addressed Thamūd was not a distant name — the caravan road passed through that region.

And the people were named in the discussion of al-Fajr 89/9 as well.

What is to be added here is what belongs to these three verses alone.

Root: م-ت-ع. Its concrete sense: to benefit from a thing, to enjoy it; and to be durable. Matāʿ — goods, property, provisions for a journey. Tamattuʿ — enjoying.

And the imperative here too is not a real command. What was recorded for dhūqū in the fourteenth verse holds here as well: the imperative can be used for rebuke, for mockery, or for the carrying out of a sentence.

But this use has a side of its own: a term is given.

Ḥattā ḥīn — "until a time". The word حِين conveys an indefinite span in Arabic; how long it is is not said.

And where the Qurʾān recounts this narrative elsewhere it gives the term explicitly: "Enjoy yourselves in your dwellings three days more" (Hūd 11/65) — tamattaʿū fī dārikum thalāthata ayyām.

Comparing the two texts:

And the indefiniteness has a function. The principle recorded earlier in this commentary in the discussions of al-Takāthur and al-ʿĀdiyāt is at work here too: a threat whose object is not named is greater than one that is named, because it has no limit.

But here there is one further layer. al-Dhāriyāt's addressee is not Thamūd but Mecca. And what is being said to Mecca is this: they too were given a term.

The indefinite term, that is, makes the one addressed think about his own situation: your term too is indefinite.

I record this as my own reading; the wordings of the two verses were given above.

Root: ع-ت-و. Its concrete sense: to exceed the bound, to swell up, to stiffen; and a thing's hardening and drying out.

A usage the lexicographers record: ʿatā al-ʿūdu — the branch dried and hardened, and would bend no longer.

And this explains the word's moral sense: ʿutuww is having lost one's flexibility. The insolent man breaks but does not bend.

The Qurʾān uses this root of Thamūd elsewhere too: the pattern "they grew insolent against their Lord's command" occurs at al-Aʿrāf 7/77 as well — wa ʿataw ʿan amri rabbihim.

And the choice of particle is interesting: ʿataw ʿan amri rabbihim — "they grew insolent away from their Lord's command". The particle ʿan conveys moving away. Insolence, that is, is not a resistance against the command; it is a moving away from the command.

The finding recorded for Thamūd in the section on al-Shams agrees with this: there the word ṭaghwā (excess) was treated and the conclusion reached that "the denial does not come first; the excess comes first". Thamūd, that is, did not first examine a proof and then reject it; they first overstepped the limit.

al-Dhāriyāt sets up the same order: a term was given → they grew insolent → they were seized.

Root: ص-ع-ق. Its concrete sense: to be struck by a violent sound, to faint, to fall down senseless.

• صَاعِقَة — a thunderbolt; and the striking of a thunderbolt.
• صَعِقَ — he was struck, he fainted. The Qurʾān uses it: "And Moses fell down senseless" (al-Aʿrāf 7/143) — wa kharra Mūsā ṣaʿiqā.
• صَعْق — being struck down.

And at the centre of the root lies sound. The thunderbolt is given this name because of its sound, not its light — the lexicographers record this regularly.

The Qurʾān uses several words for the destruction of Thamūd: ṣayḥa (a terrible cry, Hūd 11/67), ṭāghiya (the overwhelming one, al-Ḥāqqa 69/5), ṣāʿiqa (here and Fuṣṣilat 41/13, 17), rajfa (the quaking, al-Aʿrāf 7/78).

The itemising of these words was given in the section on al-Shams; I do not repeat it.

And the same root will return in Sūrat al-Ṭūr: yawmahumu'lladhī fīhi yuṣʿaqūn (52/45) — "the day on which they will be struck down". I shall gather this in the section on the links between the two sūras.

And the harshest detail of the three verses.

Root: ن-ظ-ر. To look, to watch; and to wait. The word carries both senses, and here it is disputed:

The first is the more widespread.

And on the first reading the function of the detail is this: the destruction did not come in sleep. It came while they saw, while they looked, while they were aware. They had time to flee — the next verse will say so: "they could not rise to their feet."

The detail shows an impossibility, that is: they saw, but they could not act.

Root: ق-و-م. To rise, to stand. This root was treated in the discussions of al-Fātiḥa, al-Bayyina and al-Baqara (mustaqīm, iqāma, qayyima); I do not repeat it.

And qiyām here is understood in two ways:

The two readings do not exclude one another. And the second half (wa mā kānū muntaṣirīn — "nor could they save themselves") looks to the second.

مُنتَصِر — root ن-ص-ر: to help. Intiṣār (the iftiʿāl form) — to help oneself, to save oneself. This root was treated in the section on al-Naṣr.

And the reflexive pattern is meaningful: it is not said that they received help from no one; it is said that they could not even help themselves.

This sets up a parallel with Pharaoh in the thirty-ninth verse: there he had acted bi-ruknihi (relying on his strength). Here Thamūd is left without even strength enough for itself.