Divine punishment meted out to those Israelites who profaned the sabbath (I)
The Jewish Sabbath, according to Exodus 20:8-11, was meant to be kept holy by refraining from work and devoting oneself to God worship. Let us read to find out what happened to those Israelites who profaned it in the time of David, Prophet and king.
This punishment meted out are among some of the revelations divinely vouch safe to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, which is missing from the current Bible (Torah) due to human interpolation and tampering.
The revelation about those who violated the Sabbath found in the Holy Quran thus serves as an irrefutable evidence in support of Muhammad’s Prophethood for the fact that this event occurred several centuries before his birth.
So how did Muhammad get to know of it, when it was missing in the Jewish Torah, and the Bible at the time of his advent? In answer we say that it is the All-Knowing God who revealed the past to the Jewish Prophets Who in his case revealed it to him.
The topic under discussion was an event that occurred at Eilath, a town at the northern-most tip of the Gulf of Aqaba in the time of David. The preponderantly greater number of people who lived in the town were Israelites, hence what occurred was known only to them-call it their secret.
Muhammad in his lifetime used to recite it to them as a reminder and they raised no objections about it. Why? Because they knew it to be true. Such recitations, at times, would lead some of the more pious and God fearing ones to accept the truth of Islam and Muhammad as the Prophet about whose advent the Biblical Prophets had long prophesied.
Beginning from the genesis of the series of events that culminated in their punishment says Allah in the Quran:’’ The punishment for profaning the Sabbath was imposed only on those who had differed about it and thy Lord shall surely judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that wherein they had differed ‘’(Quran 6:25).
According to Ibn Abass and Ikrimah the Jews differed concerning the change, by some of them, of the Sabbath from Friday to Saturday. For their refusal to go back to the original Sabbath on Friday and their accepting Saturday as their true day of the Sabbath God retaliated as follows. That all the prohibitions imposed by the Torah on the true Sabbath were maintained by God in their chosen Saturday as the Sabbath.
That meant they could not work in it. Living near the sea shore God then subjected them to the following trial by making almost all the fishes in the sea to appear in the waters of their seashore in such abundance that they could only see the fishes and not the waters. On the other days when they were permitted to work virtually no fishes could be seen. Being dependent on the fishes for their livelihood, they were forced to devise the following stratagem to enable them circumvent the trial. They dug narrow canals from the sea shore into their homes, such that whenever the sea waves would hit their shores the fishes in the waters would be driven through the narrow canals and get trapped due to the narrowness and also due to the scanty water in them. They would then open the canals on Fridays in the evening when the Sabbath began and keep it open throughout the next day, Saturday – their new Sabbath.
Within the stipulated time of Saturday they would not work nor catch the fishes. Hence observed the Sabbath, according to their tricks. Early on Sunday in the morning they would catch all the fishes trapped in the canal, sell some and eat some. Their rabbis and scholars warned them against their clever devices and insisted that the moment they opened the canals on Friday, then began violation of the Sabbath.
They countered that argument by insisting that as long they did not open it on the Saturday, during which work was forbidden, they had violated no Sabbath. At that stage in the unfolding of events the people in the town became divided into three groups: Those who abstained from the offence and warned (Quran 7:165). Those two abstained but did not warn (Quran 7:165), and those who profaned the Sabbath (Quran 7:166). Using a high wall they subsequently divided the town into two, with each of the two quarters occupied respectively by those who observed the Sabbath by refraining from fishing and by those who violated the Sabbath cunningly.
Those who violated it certainly became rich and would dance, make merry, and play music in the night, till one night their noise making were not forthcoming. The silence continued till the following morning, so some youths from the righteous section climbed over the wall to the section of the offenders. They discovered all their houses and rooms locked.
When they forced and entered into them behold all of them, without any exception, had been physically transformed into apes. Human relatives could recognise ape relatives by their eyes. They would then tell them:’’ Did we not warn you against the disobedience?’’. They would then answer with their heads:’’ Yes you did.’’According to Ibn Abass and Ikrimah those people who turned into apes remained so for only three days after which they were destroyed by God and carried away into the sea by heavy rains.
They never ate, drank nor had off springs. So was the sad end of the offenders who violated the Sabbath by their own stratagem. Their offence outwardly looked like a true observation of the Sabbath, yet inwardly constituted a flagrant violation of it. Their being turned into apes was subsequently commensurate with the offence for the fact that apes outwardly resemble human beings, yet in wardly remained a species of its kind different from men.
The following authentic Hadith of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, throws more light on the sad event. According to Abu Hurairah, the Messenger of Allah said:’’ Do not commit the offence committed by the Jews who made lawful the prohibitions of Allah using vile, mean and evil stratagem (tricks)’’. This commentary of Muhammad gives an accurate reflection of the tricks used by the Jews in evading the Sabbath as we have described above.
For this reason the use of all such tricks in Islam is forbidden. In the same vein Abu Sa’’iid Al Khudri reports that the Messenger of Allah said: ‘Allah never destroyed a people nor a generation , neither a dispensation with a punishment from heaven after revelation of the Torah, except the people of the town that stood by the sea shore who were mutated into apes. Don’t you hear what Allah, the Most High says, in this connection:’’
We gave Moses the Book after we had destroyed the earlier generation ‘‘(Quran 28:44). Meaning that nations like the people of Noah, the Aads, the Thamud and the people of Lot who preceded revelation of the Torah were divinely punishment with destruction. The only exception to this norm were the people of the Sabbath who even though appeared after revelation of the Torah, were yet destroyed with divine punishment. In this authentic Hadith the Prophet uses the words ‘’Musikhuu Qirdatan’’, meaning ‘’They were transformed (mutated) into apes’’. ‘Meaning that the transformation was literal’. We prefer the interpretation of the Prophet of Islam and his companions to all other interpretations because the Qur’an was revealed to him.
Conclusion:
In the light of the above discussion and the verdict of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, the profaners of the Sabbath were transformed into apes to serve the ultimate lesson of a great deterrence for those present and future generations!
BY KHALID KOFI AHMAD
