The 25 Prophets: (5) Saleh (AS)

SALEH (AS)

As we have seen that Aad people were destroyed after they defied their Lord. Then came the Thamud people who moved from Yemen and went towards the south of Arabia and lived at a place called Hijr that is between Hijaaz and Shaam about three hundred and eighty kilometers north-west o-Viadina.

They, like the Aad people, constructed palatial houses by cutting them out of the mountains; an art they inherited from the Aad people. God had also bestowed on these people a lot of nice things, and they constructed their cities bigger and better than those of Aad's. He gave them good fertile land with plenty of water where they cultivated large plantations and made beautiful gardens. But these people like the Aad's never for a moment thought of their Lord who had given them all this. They also became infidels and went against their Lord.

This is when God sent Saleh (AS) to be a Prophet to them. He was an Arab and one of the grand children of Thamud. He is Saleh bin Ubayd bin Isaaf bin Maashih bin Ubayd bin Haadhir bin Thamud bin Aad (AS).

Like any Prophet who was sent, he started preaching to them and telling them to leave the worship of idols and worship the only one God (The Almighty). As happened with those who came before, they were in darkness and going astray, then a man from their Kith and kin came and told them to abandon what they were worshipping. They of course rejected his teachings, and majority of those who rejected were usually the rich who enjoyed high class in the society. Saleh (AS) was highly respected and had high standing in his society, and was well learned and a very honest man. Before becoming a Prophet he was very respected by his people and they used to come to him for counseling; and when he became a Prophet and started preaching to them, his people rejected him.

They told him: "0 Saleh! You have been among us a centre of our hopes. Do you now ask us not to worship what our fathers had worshipped? We are in grave doubt concerning that to which you tell us to worship."

He said to them: "0 my people! Worship God, you have no other god but Him. 0 my people! Do you see? If I have a clear sign from my Lord, and He has sent mercy onto me from Himself, who then can help me against God if I were to disobey Him?"

He gave them the same kind of preaching, that the other Prophets who came before him did. He reminded his people of the existence of God who is the only One to be worshipped. He told them to come out of the darkness and leave the worship of idols. The same cycles over and over again, their rejection of God and refusing to listen to their Prophet. They soon forget what had happen to those who rejected God before, and refused to learn a lesson from it.

They went on to say: "This Message is sent to him of all people among us? No he is a liar, an insolent one!"

When the argument got heated up, they said to him. "You are no more than a human like us, then bring us a Sign if you are telling the truth."

They wanted him to bring to them a Sign from God to prove what he says was true and that he really was a Prophet. With arrogance they specified what sort of Sign they wanted. So they said to him: "We want to see this rock here (there was a big rock) split up and come out of it a she-camel. The camel should be pregnant in her last months; it should be fawn in colour and be a huge camel ever seen before."

Saleh (AS) told them: "If this Sign comes, will you then believe?"

They jokingly said: "Yes let us see; may be we will believe you."

One day therefore they gathered round, and Saleh (AS) prayed to his Lord and begged Him to send this Sign. Therefore with God's command the rock split and from it came out the she-camel in front of their own eyes and with the exact specifications, as they wanted it to be. It was a miracle that no human had seen before, a huge she-camel pregnant in her last months; that was the Sign from God.

Saleh (AS) warned his people not to harm this camel else they were bound to get severe punishment from their Lord. He said to them: "0 my people! This she-camel of God is a symbol to you. Leave her to feed on God's (free) earth, and inflict no harm on her, or a swift Penalty will seize you."

He also told them: "Here is a she-camel, she has a right of watering, and you have a right of watering, (severally) on a day appointed."

The camel used to drink all the water that was available in the wells on the day allotted, while the people used the water on the alternate days. On the day the camel drank the water, it used to produce milk enough to feed everyone in the village. Because of this miracle they used to call it 'Camel of God.'

This camel of course was sent as a trial to them. The Lord relates this to us in Surat L-Qamar (The Moon) (liv) verses 27:

For We will send the she-camell by way of trial to them. So watch them, (O Saleh), and possess yourself in patience.

At first his people were surprised to see this strange animal which drinks all the water in one day and produce abundance milk enough to feed thousands. It only used to sleep in clean a place. Therefore when they saw this as a Sign from God, some people believed and followed Saleh (AS). While some of them despite all this they never wanted to believe in him and treated the camel wrongfully.

The Lord says:

 

"…We sent the she-camel to the Thamud to open their eyes,

but they treated net wrongfully: We only send the Signs by

 way of terror (and warning from evil)." [Bani Israiyl (xvii) 59]

The camel remained with them for a long time, until one day those unbelievers decided to do away with it, so a group of them sat down to discuss the plans.

They said: "This she-camel as we see it, is a problem, during the summer it finds a cool place in the valley to rest, while in winter it finds a warm place. In turn our animals (sheep etc.) run away from it and this way they are harmed and some die."

Their chief said: "There is no other way out except to kill it."

One of them said: But you know what Saleh told us about this camel, if we do any such thing we are bound to receive punishment from God."

Their chief said: "Do you really believe all what Saleh says?"

There were in the city nine men of a family who made mischief in the land, and those unbelievers selected these men to do their dirty work for them. They therefore planned their tactics of how to kill it, and decided to do the job at night when everybody was asleep. They came to it while she and her baby were asleep, and all together started stabbing it until they killed her and the baby. They then cut it to pieces and distributed the meat for people to eat. Everyone in the village except those believers shared tile sinful act of eating the meat.

When Saleh (AS) came to know about this sinful act, he became very furious and said to them: "Did I not warn you people not harm the camel?"

They replied to him in all confidence: "We have done it 0 Saleh! Let us see what you will do!"

Saleh (AS) then said to them: "Enjoy yourselves in your homes for free days, then you will be destroyed and that is a promise not to be belied!"

They never believed what Saleh (AS) was telling them; instead they were planning to get rid of Saleh (AS) himself The Lord relates this in Surat An-Naml (The Ants) (xxvii) verses 50-51:

They plotted and planned, but We too panned, even while they perceived it not. Then see what was the end of their plot! This, that vve destoyed them and their people, all (of them).

The first punishment came to the nine men who committed the act of killing the she-camel. An earth tremor came under their feet, and there was landslide with heavy rocks from the mountains, which killed them all.

After this Saleh (AS) and his followers left the village saying: "0 my -peoplel I did indeed convey to you the message of my Lord, I gave you counsel, but you do not love good counselors!"

Here the real punishment came upon the Thamud people, those unbelievers. The first sign of the punishment, people's faces became yellow in colour, and they started weeping. On the second day their faces turned red, and on the third day their faces turned black. When they saw this they started wailing, and each one of them started digging his own grave because they knew that this was their dooms day and there was no place to run to.

At day break after the third day as promised by Saleh came the real blow. A terrible earthquake came and buried the people and destroyed their boasted civilization. It came to them as a single Mighty Blast and took them unaware, and they lay prostrate in their homes like dry sticks.

Therefore Thamud and his people were destroyed because of their wrongdoing, and Saleh (AS) and his people who believed and practiced righteousness were saved from this calamity. Saleh (AS) then moved with his people towards Palestine and lived in a town of ArRamla and eventually died there.

Their ruins known as Madan Saleh are available until now about two hundred and ninety kilometers north of Madina. To the west and north west of Madan Saleh are three tracts of volcanic land covered with lava, stretching as far as Tabuk.

Reference: The Twenty five Prophets (The Parable of the Apostles Mentioned in the Holy Quraan)", by Nassir ibn Issa ibn Said Al-Kindy. (p 33-38)