Ash-Shu'araa (The Poets)

155. “He said: ‘Here is a she-camel; she shall have her portion of water (one day), and you have your portion of water on an appointed day’,”

156. “And do not touch her with evil, lest the punishment of a grievous day should overtake you.”

157. “Then they hamstrung her, and became regretful.”

A miracle must be so manifest that all people, in every level they are, can understand its miraculous state. (Here is a she-camel)

Allah is omnipotent and easily can bring miracles into existence, whether it is the moon that did rend asunder,¹ or the water of the sea that clave asunder,² and the mountain that clave asunder and a she-camel came out of it; all of these are indifferent for Him, the Mighty.

Salih’s She-camel was hamstrung by a single person, yet the Qur’an says:

“They hamstrung her”,

namely a group hamstrung her, because those people were content with the deed of that person.

Imam Ali (as) says:

“Certainly the she-camel of Thamud was hamstrung by only one, but Allah held all of them in punishment because all of them joined him by their acquiescing in their consenting to it...”3

However, this disobedient group, not for understanding the right but for seeking pretext, asked Salih for a miracle. Since the argument should be completed to them, then Salih, by the command of Allah, spoke to them as follows:

“He said: ‘Here is a she-camel; she shall have her portion of water (one day), and you have your portion of water on an appointed day’,”

The Arabic word /naqah/ means a she-camel. The Qur’an has talked about the characteristics of this camel, which has had a miraculous situation, in brief and it has not mentioned its entire specialties, but we know that it had not been an ordinary camel.

As some commentators have said this she-camel, in a miraculous manner, came out from inside of a mountain. One of its qualities was that it specialized the water of the spring of the town every other day to itself and drunk it, as it is said in the above verse and the 28th verse of Surah Al-Qamar, No. 54.

However, Salih (as) was commissioned to announce to them that they should leave that wonderful and extraordinary she-camel, which was as the sign of the unlimited Power of Allah, to itself, and he ordered that they should not hurt it the least.

Here is the command:

“And do not touch her with evil, lest the punishment of a grievous day should over take you.”

Of course, the disobedient people, who did not want that those deceived people became aware, and considered the people’s awareness as a barrier for their interests, planned to kill the she-camel. Finally they attacked the camel and, by one strike or more, they killed it and then, when they saw the Divine punishment was nigh, they became regretful of what they had done.

The verse says:

“Then they hamstrung her, and became regretful.”4