The Sabbath Trap

• About this film: the film tells Quran 7:163-166 together with the reports in Ibn Kathir's commentary. Some details are the film's own telling, not found in these sources: the two brothers and the man of the silent group as characters, and their words (the younger brother's “We didn't fish on the Sabbath… the fish swam in by themselves!”, the elder brother's “Fear Allah, my brother… this is forbidden, even with a trick!”, and the silent man's “Leave them… why wear yourselves out?”); the night of counting the fish; the change shown in detail (the hands, the face seen in the water, the hand touching the face); the seller and the wife; and the elder brother saying «ألم ننهكم؟» (“Didn't we warn you?”), which in Ibn Kathir's reports is said by the relatives, or by those who had forbidden them, in general. What is authentic is the verses of the Quran on this page and the reports that Ibn Kathir records, explained below.[1][6][7]
• The Quran tells of a town of the Children of Israel that stood by the sea (7:163). Ibn Kathir, in his commentary on the Quran, records from Ibn Abbas, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), and from several early scholars that it was Ayla, "on the shore of the Qulzum (Red) Sea", between Madyan and the mountain of at-Tur in Sinai. The geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi describes Ayla as a town on the coast of the Red Sea, on the side of Greater Syria. Its site is at the top of the Gulf of Aqaba, where the cities of Aqaba and Eilat stand today.[1][3][4][15]
• The Sabbath, Saturday, was a sacred day for them: Allah had commanded them to honour it and not to fish on it. Ibn Kathir records from the early scholar as-Suddi that they were not allowed to do any work at all on the Sabbath, and the scholar as-Sa'di explains that they were told to honour and respect the day and not to hunt or fish on it.[1][7][9]
• Then came the test. On the Sabbath the fish came to them in great numbers, swimming at the surface of the water; on the other days they did not come at all (7:163). Ibn Kathir explains, from at-Tabari: "this is how We tested them by making the fish swim close to the surface of the water" on the day they were not allowed to fish, and the fish were hidden from them on the days when fishing was allowed. As-Sa'di adds that it was their own disobedience that brought this test upon them.[1][3][9]
• So some of them came up with a trick. Ibn Kathir explains that before the Sabbath they set up nets, ropes and pools of water; on the Sabbath the fish swam in and were caught, and after the Sabbath had ended, at night, they collected them. He records from as-Suddi that a man would dig a pool with a channel to the sea and open it on the Sabbath; the waves pushed the fish in and they could not swim out, and on Sunday he took them. When their scholars told them they were fishing on the Sabbath, they answered that they had caught the fish on Sunday, when they took them. The scholars replied: no, you caught them on the day you opened the water and they came in.[3][7][9]
• Ibn Kathir explains why this was so serious: they used a trick to break what Allah had forbidden, "taking an action that seemed legal on the surface", while in reality it was meant to do exactly what was forbidden. "Their evil deeds and deceit appeared lawful on the surface, but they were in reality wicked."[3]
• The town split into three groups, as Ibn Kathir explains: one group used the trick; one group forbade them and kept away from them; and one group kept silent, neither joining in nor forbidding it. The silent group said to those who forbade: "Why do you advise [or warn] a people whom Allāh is [about] to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment?" (7:164). In other words, as Ibn Kathir puts it, there was no use in warning them.[1][3][5][10]
• Those who forbade answered that they did it to be excused before their Lord, and in the hope that the others would fear Allah and stop (7:164). In the film, the narrator gives their answer as: so that we are excused before our Lord, words said by those who forbade. Ibn Kathir explains their two reasons: they had been commanded to call to what is right and to forbid what is wrong, and their advice might still make the others stop and turn back to Allah, who accepts those who turn back to Him. As-Sa'di adds that they did not give up hope that the others might be guided, because a warning may still touch a heart.[1][3][10]
• When those who used the trick would not stop, those who forbade them refused to stay with them. In a report that Ibn Kathir records from Ikrima, who heard it from Ibn Abbas, they said: by Allah, we will not spend the night with you in your town. In as-Suddi's report, they said they would not live with them in one town, and divided the town with a wall, each side with its own gate.[6][7]
• Then the punishment came. Allah saved those who had forbidden the wrong and seized those who did wrong with a severe punishment (7:165), and when they kept defying what they had been forbidden, He said to them: "Be apes, despised." (7:166; also 2:65). Ibn Kathir explains that Allah changed them from humans into apes, the animals whose outward shape is closest to humans, though they are not human: in the same way, their trick looked right on the outside and was wrong on the inside, so their punishment matched what they had done. He mentions that one early scholar, Mujahid, said only their hearts were changed, and answers that this goes against the clear meaning of the verses: the change was both inward and outward.[1][2][3][7]
• It is reported, in the report of Ikrima from Ibn Abbas that Ibn Kathir records, that in the morning those who forbade knocked on the gate and called out, but no one answered. They set up a ladder, and a man climbed the town wall, looked down and said: servants of Allah, they are apes. They opened the gate and went in. The apes recognised their relatives among the people, but the people did not recognise them. An ape would come up to its relative, sniff his clothes and weep, and the relative would say: «ألم ننهكم؟», didn't we warn you? And it would nod its head: yes. Ibn Kathir also records from Ata al-Khurasani that those who had forbidden them came in and said: so-and-so, didn't we warn you? And they nodded.[6][7]
• The Quran names who was saved and who was punished, but says nothing about the group that kept silent. Ibn Kathir explains that they did nothing that deserved praise and nothing so wrong that they would be blamed, and that the scholars held two views about them. Ikrima said that Ibn Abbas at first did not know whether they had been saved, until Ikrima convinced him that they had been, and Ibn Abbas gave him a garment as a gift. Another report from Ibn Abbas says that only those who forbade were saved. Ibn Kathir judges the view that they were saved the better one, and as-Sa'di also says that what appears is that they were saved, since the punishment was named only for the wrongdoers.[1][3][6][11]
• The punishment fell on those who used the trick in that town, not on a whole people. Those who forbade it were also of the Children of Israel, and they were saved. As-Sa'di explains that the punishment was only for those who broke the Sabbath, and that this is Allah's way with His servants: when a punishment comes down, those who call to what is right and forbid what is wrong are saved from it.[1][11][3]
• Are today's apes their descendants? No. In Sahih Muslim, when apes and pigs were mentioned before the Prophet (peace be upon him), he said that Allah gave no offspring to any people He transformed, and that "monkeys and swine had been in existence even before". Ibn Kathir records from Ibn Abbas that those who broke the Sabbath were changed into apes and "then they perished without offspring"; it is also reported from him that they lived only three days, without eating, drinking or having young.[13][14][3]
• Allah made what happened to them an example and a warning for the people of their time and for those who came after, and "a lesson for those who fear Allāh" (2:66). Ibn Kathir explains that the story was kept so that it would remind those who came later, and that those who are mindful of Allah should beware of what these people did, so that what happened to them does not happen to them too. As-Sa'di adds that only those who fear Allah truly benefit from such a lesson.[2][3][8][12]

• What Allah has forbidden never becomes allowed with a trick: a clever way around a rule is still breaking it, as their own scholars told them.[3][7]
• Allah sometimes tests us not with what is hard to reach, but with what comes easily within reach: the fish came right up to them on the one day they had to leave them.[1][3][9]
• Calling to what is right and warning against what is wrong is a duty, even when it seems no one will listen: it excuses us before Allah, and a warning may still change a heart.[1][3][10]
• Those who forbade the wrong were saved: when a punishment comes, those who stood for what is right are kept safe from it.[1][11]
• Looking good from the outside is not enough: Allah sees what a deed really is, and the story was kept as a lesson for those who fear Him.[3][2][12]

These questions are written by Qabas Anime to help you reflect. They are not part of the Quran or its tafsir.

1. Is there something you know is not allowed that you have found a clever way around?
2. What comes "swimming right up to you" in your life, easy to take on exactly the day you should leave it?
3. When you see something wrong around you, do you speak up, or do you think "why bother, they will not listen"?
4. Why do you think the silent group felt there was no point in warning, and what would you have done in that town?