227 – ʿAbdullāh narrated to us; he said: Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl narrated to us; Jarīr narrated to us, from ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib: ⦗154⦘

“I was sitting in the mosque when an elderly man came, sat down, and people gathered around him. They said, ‘This man is one of ʿAbdullāh’s companions.’ He said, ‘I heard ʿAbdullāh recite Allah’s words: “And ask them about the town that stood by the sea” (al-Aʿrāf 163) up to the end of “for they were defiantly disobedient” (al-ʿAnkabūt 34).

‘When Allah forbade them the Sabbath, the fish felt secure on Saturday and would come in abundance, yet they could not so much as touch them. Once Saturday passed, the fish disappeared. The people used to fish as others normally do, but when they decided to violate the Sabbath, they fished on that very day. A group of their righteous men forbade them, but they refused, and the wicked outnumbered them. The evildoers even contemplated fighting those who forbade them, although among them were people they were reluctant to kill—a man’s father, brother, or other relative.

‘When the righteous admonished them and they still refused, the righteous said, “If you insist, then we shall erect a wall between us and you.” So they did. When they no longer heard any sound from the other side, some said to one another, “Why don’t you go and see what your brothers have done?” They looked, and behold, they had been transformed into monkeys. They could recognise the elder by his age and the youngster by his youth, and they began to weep over them. This happened after Moses, peace be upon him.’”