Intermediate أصحاب السبت Surah: Al-Araf (164)

Verse: "And when a community among them said: Why do you advise a people whom Allah is about to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment? They said: As an excuse before your Lord and perhaps they will fear Him." (Al-Araf 164)

Context:

• A people from the Children of Israel in a coastal town were forbidden from fishing on the Sabbath — so they devised a trick: casting nets on Friday and collecting them on Sunday
• The people split into three groups: one that transgressed, one that forbade, and one that said to those forbidding "why do you advise them?"
• The saved group: those who forbade — Allah saved them. The destroyed group: the transgressors — they were transformed into apes. The third group: uncertain — commentators differed on whether they were saved or destroyed
• Ibn Abbas said: I do not know if they were saved or destroyed — because their skepticism about the benefit of advice is suspicious

Lesson:
Enjoining good is obligatory even when you do not expect a response — the forbidders said "as an excuse before your Lord" meaning: our duty is to warn whether or not it is heeded. The measure is the act not the result.

Source: Al-Tabari (13/151); Ibn Kathir (3/499); Al-Qurtubi (7/309)

Tags: أصحاب السبتالأعرافالأمر بالمعروفبنو إسرائيلالعقوبة