The Town by the Sea, and the Sabbath

Verse 163 then tells us:

Wa-sʾalhum ʿani al-qaryati allatī kānat ḥāḍirata al-baḥr: ask the people about that place which lay close to the sea, close to the water's edge. They had been told that they might do no fishing, nor any business or the like, upon the Sabt, that is the Sabbath, which is Saturday. Saturday is a day of worship, on which no such business is done. Mā shāʾ Allāh, even today many Jews keep it. Now on six days of the week they took few fish. But on Saturday — and here is another fitnah, another trial for them — on Saturday the fish came in shoals. And they saw it, and said: we cannot fish on Saturday. So there were various ways of dealing with it. Some resolved to go and fish. Some resolved to set out nets: they were not fishing themselves, but they set the nets and took the catch afterwards — though even that was not allowed them. Others did it openly. Then there are two other groups who do not do it. And one of these groups tells the others: do not do this; it is wrong. It is always the good who say: do not do this, you may not do this, it is unlawful. And the other group says — and this is what Allah tells us in the next verse:

Wa-idh qālat ummatun minhum lima taʿiẓūna qawman Allāhu muhlikuhum aw muʿadhdhibuhum ʿadhāban shadīdā. There is a great lesson in this for us. When one group among them said to those who were giving the counsel: why do you counsel such people, whom Allah is going to destroy or punish with a mighty punishment? It is not that they knew Allah would punish them; but they say to the other group: why do you rebuke them? Why do you seek to correct them? Allah will punish them in any case. Qālū maʿdhiratan ilā rabbikum wa-laʿallahum yattaqūn: that there may at least be this excuse before the Lord, that we did our part; and also that perhaps they may believe, perhaps they may fear God.

Fa-lammā nasū mā dhukkirū bih. This is the importance of amr bi-l-maʿrūf wa-nahy ʿani al-munkar, which, as has been said, we must do at some level; we cannot all abandon it. We cannot abandon it altogether; we must do it at some level. So when they forgot what they had been counselled and reminded of, then anjaynā alladhīna yanhawna ʿani al-sūʾ: We delivered and gave safety to the group who had forbidden it and censured the others. Wa-akhadhnā alladhīna ẓalamū bi-ʿadhābin baʾīsin bimā kānū yafsuqūn: We punished the rest. And there is the next, the famous verse, 166, well known to people: that some of them refused to abide by it, and Allah (swt) commanded:

Kūnū qiradatan khāsiʾīn: become lowly and despised apes. So some of them were indeed turned into apes. There is a great deal of detail known upon it. May Allah (swt) let us learn from this, and not repeat their errors. Allah does then say, in verse 169, that there were some good people who inherited after them.

Allah then recalls certain other notable incidents of their history. Verse 171 says:

Wa-idh nataqnā al-jabala fawqahum ka-annahu ẓullah: We raised the whole mountain above them — raising up a mass, a mountain, above them, as though it were a cloud over their heads. Wa-ẓannū annahu wāqiʿun bihim: so that they feared it would fall and crush them. And still it made no difference. Which shows that when a man is unwilling to do a thing, when he has an attitude set against it, it does not matter what he sees or how convincing it is; nothing will come of it. We must therefore ask Allah for a better disposition — fa-man sharaḥa Allāhu ṣadrahu li-l-Islām. So Allah tells us, the believers: khudhū mā ātaynākum bi-quwwah, hold fast to whatever We give you; wa-dhkurū mā fīhi laʿallakum tattaqūn, and remind yourselves of what is in it, that you may gain taqwā. For that is the only way a man will get anywhere.