al-Najm 53:50-52

Wa annahu ahlaka ʿĀdani'l-ūlā · Wa Thamūda fa-mā abqā · Wa qawma Nūḥin min qabl; innahum kānū hum aẓlama wa aṭghā "And that it is He who destroyed the first ʿĀd. And Thamūd — and He left nothing. And the people of Noah (Nūḥ) before that; they were more wrongdoing and more transgressing."

The last four of the eleven anna clauses (50-53) are given to the peoples destroyed. And this changes the tone of the list.

The list descends, that is, from the abstract to the concrete: first the rulings, then God's acts, then the instances of those acts seen in history.

I record this as an observation; the order of the verses is data of the text.

The people of ʿĀd were treated in detail in the section al-Fajr, and precisely this verse was recorded there:

al-Najm 53/50 speaks of "the former ʿĀd" (ʿĀdani'l-ūlā). Whether this expression requires the existence of a second ʿĀd has been debated; the verse gives no historical information and I build no chronology upon it.

I keep the same stance here.

In the section on al-Fajr what the Qurʾān gives about ʿĀd was set out and I do not repeat it: their reliance on their strength, their destruction by a gale, their land being al-Aḥqāf. The section on al-Fajr also separated, under the heading "what the Qurʾān does not say", the information coming from exegetical and narrative reports; that separation holds here as well.

The word ٱلْأُولَىٰ occurs here for the third time in this sūra (25, 50, 56), and this will serve a purpose at the end of the sūra: verse 56 will say al-nudhuri'l-ūlā (the warners of old). The same adjective, for a people and for a chain of warners.

There is an alif in the spelling of the word ثَمُودَا۟ (Thamūdā), and this shows that the word is read as triptote (taking tanwīn).

And a variant reading is transmitted here: the word is also read ثَمُودَ (without tanwīn, diptote). The difference depends on whether the word is taken as the name of a tribe (counted feminine, taking no tanwīn) or the name of an ancestor (counted masculine, taking tanwīn). I do not name an imam; it produces no difference of meaning.

The people of Thamūd have been treated in several places in this commentary (in detail in the section al-Shams, and also in al-Ḥāqqa and al-Fajr); I do not repeat it.

Root: ب-ق-ي. Baqiya — he remained, was left over. Baqiyya — a remnant, a residue. أَبْقَىٰ (Form IV) — he left, he set aside.

The clause is negative: fa-mā abqā — "and He left nothing."

And note: this addition is there only for Thamūd. For ʿĀd only ahlaka (He destroyed) is said; for Thamūd ahlaka + fa-mā abqā.

I offer a reading and state that it is my own. The Qurʾān records elsewhere that the traces of Thamūd's dwellings could be seen: "These are their houses, left desolate because of their wrongdoing" (al-Naml 27/52). Of Thamūd, that is, stones were left but no one was left.

Mā abqā may be speaking not of a building but of a lineage: He left no one to continue.

This is an inference and is not certain; the verse does not say what was not left.

And the end of the fifty-second verse is the one clause of grounds within the list.

أَظْلَم — root ظ-ل-م. This root was treated in the sections on al-Fātiḥa and al-Baqara; I do not repeat it. The summary: the concrete sense of the root is darkness (ẓulma), and from there to displace a thing, to give it to one who has no right to it.

أَطْغَىٰ — root ط-غ-ي. It was given above at verse 17: water passing its bed, crossing a limit.

Both are elatives: "more wrongdoing, more transgressing."

And the question "more" arises: more than whom?

Both are possible. The first reading is the more widespread and appears the better suited to the word order: the clause comes immediately after the people of Noah are named.

And the repetition of the pronoun هُمْ is an emphasis: kānū هُمْ aẓlama — "they, yes precisely they."

An observation — as my own reading. The sūra names the three peoples in reverse chronological order: ʿĀd, Thamūd, then "before that" the people of Noah.

The order goes from the near to the far: the nearest memory first, the oldest last. And of the oldest it is said "more wrongdoing and more transgressing".

I offer a reading of what this says: the list moves backwards and grows heavier as it goes back. But this is not a claim that "mankind is steadily improving", and the verse says no such thing. I establish no definite ruling.