People of the Sabbath
People of the Sabbath (Arabic: أَصْحَابَ السَّبْت) were a group of Banu Israel whom, according to the Qur'an, were afflicted with divine punishment because of disobeying God and fishing on Saturdays. Most narrations have mentioned the story of the people of Sabbath to have happened at the time of Prophet David (a) in the city of Ayla.
Naming
The word "Sabbath" means "to abandon work[1] and resting".[2] To Hebrews, this word also meant "Saturday".[3] Sabbath is among religious days of Jews and is very sacred to them. In the Old Testament and Talmud, engaging in non-religious activities such as business, fishing and hunting birds are forbidden on this day.
According to some narrations, God, through Prophet Moses (a), asked Jews to celebrate Friday and not engage in any non-religious activities on Fridays, but Jews preferred Saturday. God forbade hunting for them on Saturdays. A group of Banu Israel began fishing on Saturdays and were transformed into monkeys as a divine punishment.[4] The Qur'an refers to these people as "the People of Sabbath".
Story
According to hadiths interpreting the verses of the Qur'an, some people lived by the sea and received God's order to avoid fishing and eating fish on Saturdays.[5] They followed the order of God for a while. By the will of God, fish came up on the water on Saturdays and tempted fishers, but on other days, fish went down to the depth and became difficult to catch. Some of those people devised a strategy and dug pits on the sea's shore so that fish could enter them by the waves on Saturdays and fishers could catch them on Sundays.[6] According to some other reports, they went fishing on Saturdays and ate them on different days. So, they would say, "We are prohibited from eating fish on Saturdays, not fishing." Against them, other people were divided into two groups: a group who remained indifferent to such actions and others who prohibited them from doing this. However, they did not care and continued with those strategies. Those who prohibited them separated and kept away from them because they knew that divine punishment would afflict them.
Metamorphosis of the People of Sabbath
Eventually, the people of Sabbath were afflicted with divine punishment and were transformed, "We said to them, 'Be you spurned apes."[7] According to some hadiths, those transformed people perished after three days.[8]
Some exegetes referred to some verses regarding the people of Sabbath and said that only those who prohibited them from evil survived the punishment. Still, the other two groups (wrongdoers and silent ones) were afflicted with divine punishment.[9]
Allegory or Actual Transformation
It is narrated by a few exegetes such as Mujahid and Muhammad 'Abduh that the transformation of the people of Sabbath was an allegory, and only their hearts were transformed.[10] They rejected those people's apparent and physical transformation. This belief has been criticized by many exegetes: al-Tabrisi considered this view against the verses' appearance and most exegetes' opinion.
Time and Place
According to verses of the Qur'an, the people of the Sabbath lived by the sea.[11] Some sources considered Ayla as their place. In a hadith from Imam al-Baqir (a), Ayla is mentioned as the city of the people of Sabbath.[12] According to 'Allama Tabataba'i, Madyan and Tabariyya have also been mentioned as the places where the people of Sabbath lived.[13]
Most hadiths have mentioned that the people of Sabbath lived at the time of Prophet David (a).[14]
Notes
- ↑ Qurashī Bunābī, Qāmūs-i Qurʾān, vol. 3, p. 207.
- ↑ Qurashī Bunābī, Qāmūs-i Qurʾān, vol. 3, p. 207.
- ↑ Rūḥī, Asḥāb-i sibt dar aʿlām-i Qurʾān, p. 232.
- ↑ Qur'an 2:65.
- ↑ Majlisī, Ḥayāt al-qulūb, vol. 2, p. 948.
- ↑ Majlisī, Ḥayāt al-qulūb, vol. 2, p. 948.
- ↑ Qur'an 2:65.
- ↑ Tafsīr al-Imām al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī (a), p. 279.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, vol. 8, p. 268-269.
- ↑ Mughnīya, Tafsīr al-Kāshif, vol. 1, p. 121.
- ↑ Qur'an 7:163.
- ↑ Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, vol. 1, p. 266.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān, vol. 8, p. 303.
- ↑ Fakhr al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-ghayb, vol. 12, p. 412.
References
- Al-Qurʾān al-Karīm.
- Fakhr al-Rāzī, Muḥammad b. al-ʿUmar al-. Mafātīḥ al-ghayb. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1420 AH.
- Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir. Ḥayāt al-qulūb. Qom: Surūr 1384 Sh.
- Mughnīya, Muḥammad Jawād al-. Tafsīr al-Kāshif. Qom: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1424 AH.
- Makārim Shīrāzī, Nāṣir. Tafsīr-i nimūna. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1374 Sh.
- Qurashī Bunābī, ʿAlī Akbar. Qāmūs-i Qurʾān. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, 1371 Sh.
- Rūḥī, Abu l-Faḍl. Asḥāb-i sibt dar aʿlām-i Qurʾān az Dāʾirat al-maʿārif Qurʾān-i karīm. volume 2. Qom: Muʾassisa-i Būstān-i Kitāb, 1385 Sh.
- Tafsīr al-Imām al-Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī (a). Qom: Madrasa al-Imām al-Mahdī, 1409 AH.
- Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-. Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Qom: Daftar-i Intishārāt-i Islāmī, 1417 AH.
- Ṭabrisī, Faḍl b. al-Ḥasan al-. Majmaʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Nāṣir Khusraw, 1372 Sh.