“And tell them that the water is to be shared between them, each drinking turn being attended in turn. But they called their companion, and he undertook the deed and hamstrung her. How terrible, then, were My punishment and My warnings! Indeed, We sent against them a single blast, and they became like the dry, broken brushwood of a corral builder. We have certainly made the Quran easy to remember; is there anyone who will take heed?”

“And tell them that the water is to be shared between them”; that is, inform them that the water—their source from which they drew fresh water—was to be divided between them and the she-camel. She was to drink on one appointed day, and they on another. “Each drinking turn being attended in turn”; that is, the party whose allotted turn it was would attend, while those whose turn it was not would be barred from it. ⦗827⦘

“But they called their companion,” the man who personally hamstrung her and who was the most wretched member of the tribe. “And he undertook the deed”; that is, he complied with their command to hamstring her, “and hamstrung her.”

“How terrible, then, were My punishment and My warnings!” It was the severest punishment: Allah sent against them a blast and an earthquake that destroyed every last one of them, while Allah saved Sālih and those who believed with him. “We have certainly made the Quran easy to remember; is there anyone who will take heed?”