Zamʿah related: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, once delivered a sermon in which he spoke of the she-camel and of the man who hamstrung her. He then recited, “When the most wretched among them rose up” (al-Shams 12) and commented, “A fierce, powerful man—protected and honored among his people—rose against her, a man like Ibn Zamʿah.”
Both al-Bukhārī and Muslim recorded this report through the narration of Hishām.
The term ʿārim denotes a bold, noble leader, one held in honor and obeyed by his clan.
Muhammad ibn Isḥāq said: Yazīd ibn Muḥammad ibn Khuthaym told me, from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb, from Muḥammad ibn Khuthaym, from Yazīd, from ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said to ʿAlī, “Shall I inform you of the most wretched of people?” He replied, “Yes, indeed.” The Prophet said, “Two men: one is the pale-faced man of Thamūd who hamstrung the she-camel; the other is the man who will strike you, O ʿAlī, on this”—pointing to his temple—“until this is drenched by it,” meaning his beard. Ibn Abī Ḥātim recorded this narration.
The Exalted Lord says: “So they hamstrung the she-camel and defiantly disobeyed the command of their Lord, and they said, ‘O Ṣāliḥ, bring us what you have promised us if you are truly one of the messengers’” (al-Aʿrāf 77).
In these words they combined several grave forms of unbelief:
• First, they opposed Allah and His Messenger by committing the very deed that had been emphatically forbidden—hamstringing the she-camel Allah had made a sign for them.
• Second, they demanded that the punishment be hastened, thereby earning it in two ways: (1) the condition laid upon them in His words, “Do not touch her with harm lest an imminent punishment seize you” (Hūd 64); elsewhere it is described as “severe” (ash-Shuʿarāʾ 159) and in another verse as “painful” (al-Aʿrāf 73)—all of which are true; (2) their own eagerness to see that punishment descend.
• Third, they belied the Messenger even though definitive proof of his prophethood and veracity had been established. They knew this with certainty, yet unbelief, misguidance, and stubbornness drove them to reject the truth and to doubt that the punishment would befall them.
Allah the Exalted says: “So they hamstrung her, and he said, ‘Enjoy yourselves in your homes for three days; that is a promise that will not be belied’” (Hūd 63).
It is reported that when they hamstrung the she-camel, the first to assault her was Qudār ibn Sālif—may Allah curse him—who severed her tendon so that she collapsed. They then rushed upon her with their swords and hacked her to pieces. When her suckling, that is, her offspring, saw this, it bolted, climbed a nearby mountain, and cried out three times.
For that reason Ṣāliḥ said to them, “Enjoy yourselves in your homes for three days” (Hūd 65), meaning three days in addition to that very day; and so they did not