Surah Al-Baqarah — Verse 65

You know well the story of your ancestors, who prepared to fish on the Sabbath when they were not allowed to do so, and did so through trickery. They set up nets in preparation for the Sabbath so Allah made them into monkeys, rejected and cast out, because of their trickery.

And indeed you knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath (i.e. Saturday). We said to them: "Be you monkeys, despised and rejected. (65)So We made this punishment an example for those in front of it and those behind it, and a lesson for Al-Muttaqin (the pious (66)

Allah said,

وَلَقَدْ عَلِمْتُمُ

(And indeed you knew). This Ayah means, O Jews! Remember that Allah sent His torment on the village that disobeyed Him and broke their pledge and their covenant to observe the sanctity of the Sabbath. They began using deceitful means to avoid honoring the Sabbath by placing nets, ropes and artificial pools of water for the purpose of fishing before the Sabbath. When the fish came in abundance on Saturday as usual, they were caught in the ropes and nets for the rest of Saturday. During the night, the Jews collected the fish after the Sabbath ended. When they did that, Allah changed them from humans into monkeys, the animals having the form closest to humans. Their evil deeds and deceit appeared lawful on the surface, but they were in reality wicked. This is why their punishment was compatible with their crime. This story is explained in detail in Surat Al-A'raf, where Allah said (7:163),

وَاسْأَلْهُمْ عَنِ الْقَرْيَةِ الَّتِي كَانَتْ حَاضِرَةَ الْبَحْرِ إِذْ يَعْدُونَ فِي السَّبْتِ إِذْ تَأْتِيهِمْ حِيتَانُهُمْ يَوْمَ سَبْتِهِمْ شُرَّعًا وَيَوْمَ لَا يَسْبِتُونَ ۙ لَا تَأْتِيهِمْ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نَبْلُوهُم بِمَا كَانُوا يَفْسُقُونَ

(And ask them (O Muhammad ﷺ) about the town that was by the sea; when they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath (i.e. Saturday): when their fish came to them openly on the Sabbath day, and did not come to them on the day they had no Sabbath. Thus We made a trial of them, for they used to rebel (disobey Allah).)(7:163)

In his Tafsir, Al-'Awfi reported from Ibn 'Abbas that he said,

فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ

(We said to them: "Be you monkeys, despised and rejected") means, "Allah changed their bodies into those of monkeys and swines. The young people turned into monkeys while the old people turned into swine." Shayban An-Nahwi reported that Qatadah commented on,

فَقُلْنَا لَهُمْ كُونُوا قِرَدَةً خَاسِئِينَ

(We said to them: "Be you monkeys, despised and rejected"), "These people were turned into howling monkeys with tails, after being men and women."

Ibn Abi Hatim recorded that Ibn 'Abbas said, "Those who violated the sanctity of the Sabbath were turned into monkeys, then they perished without offspring." Ad-Dahhak said that Ibn 'Abbas said, "Allah turned them into monkeys because of their sins. They only lived on the earth for three days, for no transformed person ever lives more than three days. They did not eat, drink or have offspring. Allah transformed their shapes into monkeys, and He does what He wills, with whom He wills and He changes the shape of whomever He wills. On the other hand, Allah created the monkeys, swines and the rest of the creation in the six days (of creation) that He mentioned in His Book."

Allah's statement,

فَجَعَلْنَاهَا نَكَالًا

(So We made this punishment an example) means, Allah made the people of this village, who violated the sanctity of the Sabbath,

نَكَالًا

(an example) via the way they were punished. Similarly, Allah said about Pharaoh,

فَأَخَذَهُ اللَّهُ نَكَالَ الْآخِرَةِ وَالْأُولَىٰ

(So Allah, seized him with punishing example for his last and first transgression)(79:25). Allah's statement,

 لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهَا وَمَا خَلْفَهَا

(for those in front of it and those behind it) meaning, for the other villages. Ibn 'Abbas commented, "Meaning, 'We made this village an example for the villages around it by the manner in which We punished its people." Similarly, Allah said,

وَلَقَدْ أَهْلَكْنَا مَا حَوْلَكُم مِّنَ الْقُرَىٰ وَصَرَّفْنَا الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْجِعُونَ

(And indeed We have destroyed towns (populations) round about you, and We have (repeatedly) shown (them) the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.) in various ways that they might return (to the truth and believe in the Oneness of Allah ـ Islamic Monotheism)).(46:27)

Therefore, Allah made them an example for those who lived during their time as well as a reminder for those to come, by preserving their story. This is why Allah said,

وَمَوْعِظَةً لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ

(and a lesson for Al-Muttaqin (the pious)), meaning, a reminder. This Ayah means, "The torment and punishment that this village suffered was a result of indulging in Allah's prohibitions and their deceit. Hence, those who have Taqwa should be aware of their evil behavior, so that what occurred to this village does not befall them as well." Also, Imam Abu 'Abdullah bin Battah reported that Abu Hurayrah said that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said,

لَا تَرْتَكِبُوا مَا ارْتَكَبَتِ الْيَهُودُ فَتَسْتَحِلُّوا مَحَارِمَ اللهِ بِأَدْنَى الْـحِيَلِ

(Do not commit what the Jews committed, breaching what Allah has forbidden, by resorting to the lowest types of deceit.)

This Hadith has a good (Jayid) chain of narration. Allah knows best.

This episode belongs to the time of Sayyidna Dawud (David (علیہ السلام Allah had appointed Saturday as the Sabt سبت ، or the sacred day, for the Israelites; it was specially set apart for prayers and worship, and hence fishing was prohibited on this day. But these people lived on the sea-shore, and were very fond of fish. Al-Qurtubi says that the Israelites, at first, invented all sorts of clever pretences for catching fish on Saturday, and gradually started doing so openly. There now grew a division amongst them on this point. On the one hand were these transgressors, and, on the other, some scholars and pious men who tried to dissuade them from such disobedience. When the former paid no heed to them, the latter broke away altogether from the sinners, and began to live in a separate part of the town. One day they felt no sound was coming from the other part of the town. Growing curious, they went there and found that all the transgressors had been changed into apes. Qatadah says that the young ones had become apes, and the old ones swine. The apes could recognize their relatives and friends, and would approach them weeping out of remorse, and seeking their sympathy and help. Then all of them died after three days.

As to the question whether the apes and the swine we see today bear any kinship to these Israelites who had been metamorphosed, the correct position is that people who have been metamorphosed into beasts by Allah as a punishment cease to breed, and leave no progeny behind. According to a hadith reported by Imam Muslim from the blessed Companion ` Abdullah ibn Masud ؓ some people asked the Holy Prophet ﷺ whether the apes and the swine were the descendants of the metamorphosed Jews. The Holy Prophet reminded them that apes and swine existed in the world even before, and said that when Allah sends down this particular kind of punishment on a people, the race comes to an end with this, and there is no further breeding.24

24. Some 'modernizing' Muslims have tried to explain away this metamorphosis by suggesting that these disobedient Jews did not actually and physically turn into beasts, but that the change was only psychological in so far as they acquired the evil characteristics of apes and swine. To say such a thing is to deny an explicit statement of the Holy Qur'an, which no Muslim can do, if he wishes to remain a Muslim. Moreover, in denying the possibility of physical change, the 'modernizers' are also denying the power of Allah, and putting limitations on it. Even as a piece of literary exegesis, the 'modernist' interpretation is flimsy. For, even before the punishment fell on them, these Jews had been displaying the moral and psychological traits of beasts: the greed of swine and the craftiness of apes. Where was, then, the change which the Holy Qur'an declares to be a punishment for the offenders and a warning for others? Our 'modernists' are, in fact, all too ready to swallow without batting an eye-lid the most preposterous and unfounded notions, only if they come from the West. So, they have complete certitude with regard to Darwin's speculation, that the apes evolved into man, although no verifiable data has yet been gathered to support the contention; but when it comes to the statement in the Holy Qur'an that men were changed into apes, they look askance at it, although this kind of change is rationally and logically as possible as the other.

Let us now go back to the verse under discussion. The people who witnessed the event, or heard of it, were of two kinds - the disobedient and the obedient. For the disobedient, it served as a 'deterrent', an example and a warning, which persuaded them to repent of their disobedience. For the obedient, it was a lesson and a reminder that they should be steadfast in their obedience. It serves these two purposes even now.

Injunctions and related considerations

We have been saying that the Jews who were changed into apes had used certain ruses or pretences to justify their sin in their own eyes. This brings us to a rather delicate question of Fiqh فقہ (Islamic jurisprudence). Certain 'modernists' have quite shamelessly been busy maligning the master jurists of Islam by suggesting that these masters have invented very intricate "stratagems" (Hiyal, plural of Hilah) for helping the rich and powerful to infringe the laws of the Shari'ah and get away with it. This is a petty calumny, and should not have been worthy of consideration except for the fact that such 'modernists' have had some success with the gullible and the ignorant by playing upon the Arabic word Hilah. As everyone knows, the lexical meaning of a word is one thing, and its technical signification, when it is used as a term in some science, is another. In its literal sense, the word Hilah no doubt means "a trick, a stratagem", but as a technical term in Fiqh فقہ it signifies a device for and a means of giving legitimacy to an action in a contingency by making certain necessary modifications in it in consonance with the 'Shari` ah. Thus, it is not a way of by-passing the Shari'ah, but of helping people to conform to it even in a situation where necessity or human weakness would compel them to go against it.

The present verse has a particular relevance to the question, and would help to clarify it a great deal. The transgression on the part of the Jews which the verse speaks of, and which drew upon them such dreadful punishment, was not a clear and explicit infringement of divine law, but the use of certain "tricks" which necessarily involved the negation of the divine commandment. For example, on Saturday they would tie one end of a cord to the tail of a fish and the other end to something on the shore, and leave the fish in the water; on Sunday, they would take it out and eat it. Such a ruse not only negates an injunction of the Shari'ah, but is actually a mockery. That is why those who practiced such "stratagems" were considered to be disobedient and rebellious, and subjected to dire punishment.

But this particular instance does in no way go to prove that the Hiyal are impermissible. We have explained the nature and purpose of such "devices" alone. Not only do they form an integral part of Fiqh فقہ ، but some of them have actually been suggested by the Holy Prophet ﷺ himself. For example, bartering a kilo of good dates for two kilos of bad dates is, according to the Shari'ah, a kind of usury. The Holy Prophet ﷺ has suggested a "device" (Hilah) for avoiding the infringement of this regulation in a situation where such a transaction becomes necessary - that is, instead of bartering one commodity for another, one may employ the exchange value of money: first sell two kilos of bad dates for two rupees, and then with the two rupees thus obtained buy a kilo of good dates. The intention in using this "device" is to conform to the Shari'ah, and not to by-pass it. The negation of the Shari'ah is neither intended here, nor does it actually take place. This principle holds good in the case of all the Hiyal which the Fuqaha-' (jurists) have proposed in order to save people from practicing what the Shari` ah has prohibited. It is a travesty of the truth to compare them to or represent them as the "tricks" employed by the Jews to negate and mock the Shari ah.

A covenant was made with Moses’ people that they would faithfully carry out the divine teachings given to them in the form of the Ten Commandments. The Talmud tells how, at this time, God turned a mountain upside down, holding it above them and told them either to accept the teachings of the Torah, or be destroyed there and then. The same is the case with everyone who embraces true faith. To have faith is to make a contract with God that one will live and die in accordance with His will. What a grave pledge this is. On the one hand there is man—a tiny, helpless speck in God’s world—and on the other, God, whose might upholds the universe. If man keeps his word, he will be granted God’s eternal blessings. But if he turns away from his commitment, he is in grave danger of being cast into hell-fire, never to emerge again. Everyone who believes in God should go through the same experience as Moses’ people. Everyone who binds himself to the contract of faith should live in the fear of breaking his religious vows, thereby bringing catastrophe down upon himself. Sometimes those entrusted with the law of God go astray by contradicting it in practice, while finding words to make it appear that they are following it to the letter. The Israelites, for instance, were commanded to keep holy the Sabbath day, and refrain from worldly pursuits on that day. But they violated it and went about their work on the Sabbath as on any other day. Furthermore, they sought to justify their actions and made out that what they were doing conformed to the will of God. This audacity incurred God’s displeasure and they were turned into apes. Whenever one turns against the law of God, one puts oneself on a par with animals who follow no code of ethics. Those who play games with divine law, should fear being deprived of their human dignity, and being brought down to the level of animals.