traps and hooks on Friday, and would draw them out on Sunday. They did this for some time, yet no punishment came down upon them. Thus they grew bold in sin and said, “We can only conclude that it has been made lawful for us.” So they caught, ate, salted, sold, and bought, and their wealth increased.
When they did this, the people of the town—about seventy thousand in number—became three groups: one group refrained and forbade it; another refrained but did not forbid it; and a third violated the prohibition. Those who forbade it numbered twelve thousand. When the sinners refused to accept their advice, they said, “By Allah, we shall not live with you in one town.” So they divided the town with a wall and remained thus for two years. Then David, peace be upon him, cursed them, and Allah became angry with them because they persisted in disobedience.
One day, those who had forbidden the wrongdoing went out through their gate, but none of the sinners came out, nor did they open their gate. When they were delayed, the others climbed over the wall to them and found that they had all become apes with tails, howling. Qatadah said: “The young became apes and the old became swine.” They remained for three days and then perished. No creature transformed in this manner lived for more than three days, nor did they reproduce.
Allah Most High said: “So We said to them, ‘Be apes, despised!’” This was a command bringing about transformation and creation. “Despised” means banished and driven away. It was also said that the wording involves inversion: that is, “Be despised apes.” This is why the feminine form was not used. The root meaning is expulsion and banishment, and the verb may be transitive or intransitive: one may say, “I drove him away, and he was driven away,” just as one says, “I sent him back, and he returned.”
“And We made it”—that is, We made their punishment through transformation—“a deterrent”: a punishment and a warning. A deterrent is the name for every punishment that restrains the observer from doing that for which the punishment was imposed. From the same root is the expression “refusing an oath,” meaning abstention. Its origin is the word for a shackle, whose plural is “shackles.”
“For what lay before it”: Qatadah said that this refers to the sins which had preceded it; that is, We made that punishment a requital for their earlier sins, before they had been forbidden to take the catch. “And for what lay behind it” refers to the sins then present for which they were seized—namely, their disobedience in taking the fish.
Abu al-‘Aliyah and al-Rabi‘ said: It was a punishment for their past sins and a warning to those who came after them, lest they follow their practice. The second relative pronoun here means “those who.” It was also said: “We made it” means that We made the town of the Sabbath-breakers a warning to the towns immediately around it that were then built, and to those towns that would arise afterward, so that they might take heed. Another opinion is that the wording involves inversion. Its meaning is: We made it—and what lay behind it, namely the punishment prepared for them in the Hereafter—a requital for what lay before it, that is, for their preceding sins in transgressing on the Sabbath. “And an admonition for the God-fearing”: for the believers from the community of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, so that they would not do as they did.
The statement of the Most High: “And when Moses said to his people, ‘Indeed, Allah commands you to slaughter a cow.’” A cow is the female of cattle. It is said to be derived from a word meaning “to split,” because it splits the ground for ploughing.
The account (1) is that among the Children of Israel there was a wealthy man who had a poor cousin and no heir other than him. When he had waited too long for his death