16
(65–66) “You are already aware of those among you who broke the Sabbath. We said to them, ‘Be disgraced apes!’ So We made their fate an example to present and future generations, and a lesson to the God-fearing.”
That is, you know full well what happened to “those among you who broke the Sabbath.” They are the people whose story Allah relates at length in Surat al-Aʿrāf, where He says: “Ask them about the town that was by the sea, when its people transgressed on the Sabbath,” and the verses that follow.
This grave sin warranted Allah’s wrath upon them and His turning them into “disgraced apes”—contemptible and humiliated.
﴿٦٥-٦٦﴾ ﴿وَلَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمُ الَّذِينَ اعْتَدَوْا مِنْكُمْ فِي السَّبْتِ فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ * فَجَعَلْنَاهَا نَكَالا لِمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهَا وَمَا خَلْفَهَا وَمَوْعِظَةً لِلْمُتَّقِينَ﴾ .
أي: ولقد تقرر عندكم حالة ﴿الَّذِينَ اعْتَدَوْا مِنْكُمْ فِي السَّبْتِ﴾ وهم الذين ذكر الله قصتهم مبسوطة في سورة الأعراف في قوله: ﴿وَاسْأَلْهُمْ عَنِ الْقَرْيَةِ الَّتِي كَانَتْ حَاضِرَةَ الْبَحْرِ إِذْ يَعْدُونَ فِي السَّبْتِ﴾ الآيات.
فأوجب لهم هذا الذنب العظيم، أن غضب الله عليهم وجعلهم ﴿قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ﴾ حقيرين ذليلين.