An-Naml (The Ant)

45. “And indeed We sent unto (the tribe of) Thamud their brother Saleh, saying: ‘Worship you Allah!’ but behold, they became two parties quarrelling with each other.”

46. “He said: ‘O my people! Why will you hasten on the evil before the good? Why do you not ask forgiveness of Allah so that you may be dealt with mercifully?”

Next to a part of life stories of Moses, David, and Solomon (as) mentioned in the previous verses, the fourth prophet, a part of whose life story is referred to in this Surah, is Hadrat Saleh, the prophet of Thamud people.

At first, it says:

“And indeed We sent unto (the tribe of) Thamud their brother Saleh, saying: ‘Worship you Allah!’…”

As it was also said before, the application of the concept of ‘their brother’, which has been used in the story life of several prophets, is a hint to their ultimate love and affection unto their peoples. In addition to this, in some instances, it points to their relationship with those people, too.

However, the entire messengership and invitation of this prophet is summarized in the holy phrase:

“Worship you Allah!”

Yes, the servitude of Allah is the essence of all teachings of the messengers of Allah.

Then, the verse continues saying:

“…but behold, they became two parties quarrelling with each other.”

Those two groups, who quarrelled with each other, were the believers, from one side, and the obstinate disbelievers, from the other side.

Imam Baqir (as) said:

“A group attested the invitation of Hadrat Salih but another group rejected it.”1

These two groups are referred to in Surah Al-’A‘raf, No. 7, verse 75 as:

‘The arrogant’

and

‘those who were considered weak’.

It says:

“The chiefs of the arrogant among his people said to those who were considered weak - those of them who believed - ‘Do you know that Saleh is sent by his Lord?’ they said surely we believe in what he has been sent with’.” “Those who were arrogant said: ‘We, indeed, disbelieve in that which you believe’.”2

Of course, this conflict of two groups of believers and disbelievers existed among the peoples of many prophets, although some of them were deprived of even these adherents and nearly the totality of their people were rejecters of the truth.

Finally, in order to awaken them, Hadrat Saleh (as) began warning them, and made them aware of the painful chastisements of Allah. But not only they did not take counsel, but also took that very matter as a reason for their obstinacy, and persistently wanted him that they should be involved with the Divine punishment if he was truthful.¹

But Saleh replied them as follows:

“He said: ‘O my people! Why will you hasten on the evil before the good?…”

Why do you concentrate your thought on meeting the Divine punishment? If the Divine chastisement meets you, it will put an end to your life and there will not remain any time for you to believe. Let yourselves try the legitimacy of my statement by the grace and blessings of Allah which will embrace you as the result of Faith.

The verse continues saying:

“…Why do you not ask forgiveness of Allah so that you may be dealt with mercifully?”

Why do you seek for evils and the descent of punishment? What is this obstinacy and arrogance for?

Those who rejected the call of prophets and asked for the promised punishment were not limited to the people of Saleh, this matter is repeatedly seen in the Qur’an concerning other peoples, too, including the people of Nuh.²

In relation to the Prophet of Islam (S) and some fanatic and obstinate polytheists, the Qur’an says:

“And (remember) when they said: ‘O Allah! If this (Qur’an) is the truth from You, then rain down upon us stones from the sky, or bring us a painful punishment’.”5

This is, indeed, surprising that some persons want to try the truthfulness of the call of the prophet by the way of Divine destructive punishment, not by the way of asking for Divine mercy; while certainly they do verify the probable legitimacy of those prophets in their hearts, though they deny it by tongue.

This behaviour is like a person who claims he is a physician and says this medicine is curative and that one is fatal, and then, in order to test him, we use the fatal medicine, not the curative one.

This is the ultimate ignorance, folly and fanaticism, while ignorance has many fruits of this kind.