Bring About Your Threat

Fa-ʿaqarū al-nāqata wa ʿataw ʿan amri rabbihim wa qālū yā Ṣāliḥu-ʾtinā bimā taʿidunā in kunta min al-mursalīn: so they killed the she-camel, and insolently defied the commandment of their Lord, and said: O Ṣāliḥ, bring about the threat, if you are indeed one of the messengers of Allah. The camel is dead: bring your threat. We challenge you; we dare you to do anything. Here's the camel. You said this is the camel, this camel is sacred, Allah (swt) is protecting it — look at it: it's dead. So now bring us the punishment that you promised.

Not only did they do that: they went back, and they made a conspiracy at night time that they will assassinate not only Ṣāliḥ, but they would exterminate his whole family. They made a plan that the next step, after we kill the camel: we're going to kill Ṣāliḥ and all of his family.

Qālū taqāsamū bi-llāhi la-nubayyitannahu wa ahlahu thumma la-naqūlanna li-waliyyihi mā shahidnā mahlika ahlihi wa innā la-ṣādiqūn. They said: swear one to another by Allah that we shall make a secret night attack on him and his household, and afterwards we will surely say to his near relatives: we witnessed not the destruction of his household, and verily we are telling the truth. So they're planning to kill Ṣāliḥ and his family, and then they're planning to lie, and say that we didn't kill him — and they're going to say that we're telling the truth.

Ṣāliḥ came out and told his people: tamattaʿū fī dārikum thalāthata ayyām — you have three days to enjoy yourselves. Dhālika waʿdun ghayru makdhūb: this is a promise that will not be belied. You have three days. Three days to enjoy yourselves, and that's it: you're not going to live anymore.

The first day passed; nothing happened. The second day passed; nothing happened. The third day passed; nothing happened. They started joking at night time, and saying: look at this liar. He told us three days; here, the three days are over. They went to bed āminīn, secure.

Early in the morning — fa-akhadhathumu al-ṣayḥatu muṣbiḥīn — Allah (swt) sent on them the awful cry in the morning of the first day: the exact deadline. They went to bed safe, āminīn, in houses carved from solid bedrock. Nothing can destroy it. Wind cannot harm it. An earthquake will not do it any harm. A hurricane, a tornado, a torrential rain, a storm, floods will not harm it. They thought they were safe.