al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:153-159

Qālū innamā anta mina'l-musaḥḥarīn · Mā anta illā basharun mithlunā fa'ti bi-āyatin in kunta mina'ṣ-ṣādiqīn · Qāla hādhihi nāqatun lahā shirbun wa lakum shirbu yawmin maʿlūm · Wa lā tamassūhā bi-sūʾin fa-yaʾkhudhakum ʿadhābu yawmin ʿaẓīm · Fa-ʿaqarūhā fa-aṣbaḥū nādimīn · Fa-akhadhahumu'l-ʿadhāb; inna fī dhālika la-āyatan wa mā kāna aktharuhum muʾminīn · Wa inna rabbaka la-huwa'l-ʿazīzu'r-raḥīm

"They said: 'You are only one of the bewitched. · You are nothing but a mortal like us. Bring a sign, if you are one of the truthful!' · He said: 'This is a she-camel. She has a turn to drink, and you have a turn on a known day. · Do not touch her with harm, or the punishment of a great day will seize you.' · But they hamstrung her; then they became regretful. · And the punishment seized them. In this there is surely a sign; but most of them were not believers. · And your Lord — He indeed — is the Mighty, the Merciful."

The sentence occurs twice in the sūra and is exactly the same in the mouths of two peoples:

This is a repetition that can be verified from the text.

مُسَحَّر — root س-ح-ر, the passive participle of Form II. And the word has been read in two different directions:

The second reading is transmitted among the lexicographers: saḥar in Arabic means the lung, and musaḥḥar means "possessor of a lung", that is, a mortal.

And the next verse supports the second reading: mā anta illā basharun mithlunā — "you are nothing but a mortal like us". Verse 154, that is, stands as though it were explaining verse 153.

I do not impose a preference; but I record this contextual link as a datum of the text.

And what the two readings have in common is this: both classify the messenger. Either "a man whose mind is disordered" or "an ordinary human being". What he says is not discussed.

This is a technique repeated in the sūra and deserves to be tabulated:

All the accusations directed at the five messengers in the sūra are thus of the same kind: the speech is not discussed, the speaker is classified. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text and it explains why the final section of the sūra takes poets as its subject. This link will be treated in the section on 224-227.

And this demand meets the fourth verse of the sūra.

Three peoples, the same demand three times. And 31 and 154 are almost exactly the same (in kunta mina'ṣ-ṣādiqīn).

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the comparison of these four verses: in the fourth verse the sūra had said "if it were willed a sign would be sent down from heaven and the necks would bow". It then shows three peoples asking for the same thing. And to Thamūd a sign is given (155) — and the outcome does not change. The sūra, that is, tests the judgement of the fourth verse by an account.

The root ن-و-ق: a female camel. The Qurʾān speaks of this she-camel in many places (al-Aʿrāf 7/73; Hūd 11/64; al-Isrāʾ 17/59; al-Qamar 54/27; al-Shams 91/13) and it was treated in al-Qamar and al-Shams.

What is peculiar to al-Shuʿarāʾ's telling must be recorded: here it is not said how the she-camel came. Hādhihi nāqatun — "this is a she-camel". It is only pointed to.

I do not enter into a detail the Qurʾān does not give: reports are transmitted that the she-camel came out of a rock; this is not in the Qurʾān.

The root ش-ر-ب: to drink. Shirb — a share of drinking water, a turn.

And the order itself must be recorded: the water is apportioned day by day. One day for the she-camel, one for the people. And at al-Qamar 54/28 the same order is stated more plainly: wa nabbiʾhum anna'l-māʾa qismatun baynahum — "and inform them that the water is apportioned among them".

I record this as an observation: the subject of the trial is not a belief but keeping to an order of sharing. The one thing asked of the people is not to break the turn of the water.

The prohibition is not "do not kill her": lā tamassūhā bi-sūʾin — "do not touch her with harm".

The root م-س-س: to touch, to come into contact. The verb is used of the lightest contact.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the choice of the verb: the prohibition begins not from the extreme act (killing) but from the smallest contact. And the people break the prohibition at the extreme point: fa-ʿaqarūhā.

The root ع-ق-ر: the sense the lexicographers give is to cut the leg tendon of an animal, to wound it at the root. The word is not "to kill" (qatala); it is to bring the camel down by cutting its leg, and this was the Arabs' method of slaughtering a camel.

And the verse contains the most striking sentence of the account: the people become regretful.

The root ن-د-م: to feel inward regret for a deed done.

And a point of word order must be recorded: the regret comes before the punishment.

The order, then, is this: the deed → regret → the punishment.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the order of the two verses: the regret does not stop the punishment. And the verse does not say what kind of regret it was — repentance, or the rueful regret felt on seeing the consequence? The text does not distinguish.

The transmitted explanations:

I do not impose a preference. What is to be recorded is this: the Qurʾān records elsewhere too that not every kind of regret yields the same outcome — fa-lam yaku yanfaʿuhum īmānuhum lammā raʾaw baʾsanā (al-Muʾmin 40/85 — treated in Ghāfir (al-Muʾmin)).

The hundred and fifty-eighth verse is the second of the sūra's eight seals to carry an addition (the other is 139). This was treated in Table 1 of the section "The backbone of the sūra"; I do not repeat it.

What is to be added here is a note on a word: the addition is in the form fa-akhadhahumu'l-ʿadhāb, and the verb is the same as the verb Ṣāliḥ used in the hundred and fifty-sixth verse: fa-yaʾkhudhakum ʿadhābu yawmin ʿaẓīm.

The verb used in the warning, that is, is repeated unchanged in the fulfilment. This is an overlap that can be verified from the text. And it stands on the same line as the principle recorded in al-Burūj: the outcome is announced in the language of the warning.