وَسْـَٔلْهُمْ عَنِ ٱلْقَرْيَةِ ٱلَّتِى كَانَتْ حَاضِرَةَ ٱلْبَحْرِ إِذْ يَعْدُونَ فِى ٱلسَّبْتِ
Wa'salhum ʿani'l-qaryati'llatī kānat ḥāḍirata'l-baḥri idh yaʿdūna fi's-sabti idh taʾtīhim ḥītānuhum yawma sabtihim shurraʿan wa yawma lā yasbitūna lā taʾtīhim, kadhālika nablūhum bimā kānū yafsuqūn · Wa idh qālat ummatun minhum lima taʿiẓūna qawman Allāhu muhlikuhum aw muʿadhdhibuhum ʿadhāban shadīdā, qālū maʿdhiratan ilā rabbikum wa laʿallahum yattaqūn · Fa-lammā nasū mā dhukkirū bihī anjayna'lladhīna yanhawna ʿani's-sūʾi wa akhadhna'lladhīna ẓalamū bi-ʿadhābin baʾīsin bimā kānū yafsuqūn · Fa-lammā ʿataw ʿan mā nuhū ʿanhu qulnā lahum kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn
"Ask them about the town by the sea: how they broke the Sabbath. Their fish came to them in shoals on the day of their Sabbath, and on the days when they did not keep the Sabbath they did not come. So We were testing them for their transgressing. · When a company among them said, 'Why do you admonish a people whom God is going to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment?', they said: 'As a plea before your Lord, and that they may perhaps guard themselves.' · When they forgot what they had been reminded of, We delivered those who forbade evil, and seized those who did wrong with a grievous punishment for their transgressing. · And when they exceeded the bound in what they had been forbidden, We said to them: 'Be apes, driven away.'"
This event was treated at 2/63-66 in al-Baqara, and I rely on that treatment. A summary of what was recorded there:
"The solution that is transmitted is this: on the Sabbath nets and pools are made ready, the fish go into them, and on Sunday they are gathered. On the Sabbath there was no fishing — technically." "The wording of the prohibition given is preserved while its purpose is cancelled. The prohibition appears to have been kept; the prohibition does not work." "The Qurʾān marks this behaviour in three separate places with three different examples — which means that it is not a single event but a kind that is being described."
I do not repeat it. And the limit recorded at 16/124 in al-Naḥl also holds: the Qurʾān touches on this matter in several places (al-Baqara 2/65, al-Aʿrāf 7/163, al-Nisāʾ 4/154) and goes into no detail. I rely on that treatment.
Al-Aʿrāf gives a piece of information al-Baqara does not, and this is a difference that can be verified from the two texts: in the event there are three groups, not two.
| Group | Verse | What it does | Its end |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 163 | Yaʿdūna fi's-sabt — those who broke the prohibition | Akhadhna'lladhīna ẓalamū (165) |
| 2 | 165 | Yanhawna ʿani's-sūʾ — those who forbade evil | Anjaynā (165) — they were delivered |
| 3 | 164 | Lima taʿiẓūna qawman… — those who found admonition needless | The text does not say |
The outcome of the third group is not stated in the verse. This is a gap that can be verified from the text, and it has been much debated in the classical commentaries.
| View | What became of the third group | Ground |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | They are included among the delivered — they did not break the prohibition | Only two groups are named in verse 165: anjaynā and akhadhnā; the third group is not counted among those who broke the prohibition |
| 2 | They are included among those seized — they chose silence | In verse 165 those delivered are named alladhīna yanhawna ʿani's-sūʾ; the third group does not fall under that description |
| 3 | The text is deliberately silent — the outcome is not stated | That the verse counts two groups and does not include the third in the count |
This disagreement is transmitted from the earliest period, and no preference is made in this commentary.
And the answer of the second group must be recorded, and it is one of the most concrete sentences in the sūra:
| # | Ground | What it looks to |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maʿdhiratan ilā rabbikum | The one who admonishes — his own account |
| 2 | Wa laʿallahum yattaqūn | The one addressed — the possibility of a result |
I record this as my own reading and it is not binding; its ground is the order of the two grounds: the first ground remains valid even if the result does not come about. That is, admonition is given as an obligation not contingent on the result. And this is the answer to the objection itself: the objection was saying "they are going to be destroyed anyway".
م-ع-ذ-ر — the root ع-ذ-ر: to remove a fault, to offer an excuse. Maʿdhira means "the setting out of an excuse".
The disagreement about this expression was tabulated at 2/65 in al-Baqara, and I rely on that treatment. What was recorded there will not be repeated; I content myself with carrying the disagreement over here and tabulating it with its grounds:
| View | What is understood | Ground | Its difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A real transformation | The plain sense of the expression; that the command kūnū states a becoming; that it is the view of the majority | The text does not give the detail of the process |
| 2 | A likeness — the becoming ape-like of hearts and conduct, falling into imitation and cunning | The frequency of such expression in Arabic; and that it was voiced in the early period too | That the plain sense of the command kūnū states a becoming |
And the finding recorded at 2/65 in al-Baqara, which holds independently of the two views, holds here too; I rely on it: the animal chosen is not accidental. The ape is the animal that imitates — it copies the appearance and does not understand the function. And that is exactly what was done: the appearance of the prohibition was preserved, its meaning imitated. The punishment is named in the language of the offence itself.
The one new thing that belongs here is the pattern of the verb in al-Aʿrāf, and it is a datum of word order:
| Place | Expression |
|---|---|
| al-Baqara 2/65 | Fa-qulnā lahum kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn |
| al-Aʿrāf 7/166 | Fa-lammā ʿataw ʿan mā nuhū ʿanhu qulnā lahum kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn |
Al-Aʿrāf adds a conditional clause at the head of the same sentence: fa-lammā ʿataw ʿan mā nuhū ʿanh — "when they exceeded the bound in what they had been forbidden". In al-Baqara this qualification is absent.
The root ع-ت-و had occurred in the seventy-seventh verse (wa ʿataw ʿan amri rabbihim — Thamūd). The same root, two different communities. This is a repetition that can be verified within the sūra.
خَٰسِـِٔين — the root خ-س-أ: to be driven off, to be sent away; the lexicographers tie the root to the sound used to shoo an animal away. It was treated at 2/65 in al-Baqara.