The nations destroyed collectively

Chapter on the mention of nations destroyed collectively. That took place before the descent of the Torah, according to His saying: "And We gave Musa the Book after We had destroyed the first generations" (al-Qasas, 43). The verse, as reported by Ibn Jarir, Ibn Abi Hatim and al-Bazzar, from the hadith of Awf al-A'rabi, from Abu Nadra, from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri who said: "Allah did not destroy any people with a punishment from the sky or from the earth after the Torah was sent down upon the face of the earth, except the village whose people were transformed into monkeys." Do you not see that Allah says: "And We gave Musa the Book after We had destroyed the first generations" – and al-Bazzar raised it in a version of his, and its like. And Allah knows best; his pausing indicates that every nation destroyed collectively was destroyed before Musa (peace be upon him).

Among them: the people of ar-Rass. Allah the Most High said, in surah al-Furqan: "And Aad and Thamud, the people of ar-Rass and many generations between them; and to each We gave examples, and each We annihilated with total annihilation" (al-Furqan, 38-39). And He said, in surah Qaf: "They denied before them: the people of Noah, the people of ar-Rass, Thamud, Aad, Pharaoh, the brothers of Lot, the people of the thicket, and the people of Tubba': each denied the messengers, so My threat was fulfilled" (Qaf, 12-14).

This context, and the one before it, indicate that they were killed, destroyed and annihilated – that is the destruction. This rejects the choice of Ibn Jarir: that they are the people of the Trench mentioned in surah al-Buruj; because those, according to Ibn Ishaq and a group, lived after the Messiah (peace be upon him) – and this also requires examination. Ibn Jarir reported that Ibn Abbas said: "The people of ar-Rass are the people of a village from the villages of Thamud."

The great Hafiz Abu al-Qasim Ibn Asakir mentioned at the beginning of his Tarikh, at the mention of the founding of Damascus, from the Tarikh of Abu al-Qasim Ubaydullah ibn Abdullah ibn Khurdadhba and others, that the people of ar-Rass were in Hazur. Allah sent to them a prophet called Hanzala ibn Safwan; they denied him and killed him. Aad ibn Awss ibn Iram ibn Sam ibn Noah then left with his descendants from ar-Rass and settled at al-Ahqaf, and Allah destroyed the people of ar-Rass, who scattered throughout all of Yemen and at the same time spread over the whole earth – until Jayrun ibn Sa'd ibn Aad ibn Awss ibn Iram ibn Sam ibn Noah came down to Damascus and founded its city, calling it Jayrun: it is Iram of the Pillars, and there is no place with more stone columns than Damascus. Allah then sent Hud ibn Abdullah ibn Rabah ibn Khalid ibn al-Khalud ibn Aad to Aad – the children of Aad – at al-Ahqaf; they denied him and Allah destroyed them (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). This implies that the people of ar-Rass preceded Aad by very long eras. And Allah knows best.

Ibn Abi Hatim reported, from Abu Bakr ibn Abi Asim, from his father, from Shaybib ibn Bishr, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas who said: "ar-Rass is a well in Azerbaijan." Ath-Thawri reported, from Abu Bukayr, from Ikrima who said: "ar-Rass is a well into which they threw their prophet," that is: they buried him in it. Ibn Jurayj said, from Ikrima: "The people of ar-Rass are at Falj; they are the people of Yasin." Qatada said: "Falj, a village of the Yamama." I say: if they are the people of Yasin, as Ikrima claims, they were indeed destroyed collectively: Allah said in their story: "It was but one shout, and behold, they were extinguished" (Yasin, 29) – and their story will come after these. If they are others than them – and that is what is apparent – they were also destroyed and annihilated. In any case, it contradicts what Ibn Jarir mentioned.

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn al-Hasan an-Naqqash mentioned that the people of ar-Rass had a well that watered them and sufficed for all their land, and a just king of good conduct. When he died, they felt great grief; a few days later, the devil appeared to them in his form and said: "I have not died, but I absented myself from you to see what you do. They rejoiced intensely; he ordered a curtain hung between them and himself, and told them he would never die. Most of them believed him, were tempted by him and worshipped him.

Allah sent among them a prophet who told them that this was a devil speaking to them from behind the curtain, forbade them his worship and commanded them to worship Allah alone, without associate. As-Suhayli said: revelation came to him in dreams, and his name was Hanzala ibn Safwan. They rushed upon him, killed him and threw him into the well; its water subsided, they thirsted after their drinking, their trees dried up, their fruits ceased, their dwellings were ruined; sociability gave way to wildness, union to division, and they perished to the last; the jinn and wild beasts settled in their dwellings: nothing is heard in their lands but the piping of jinn, the roaring of lions and the voice of hyenas.

As for what Ibn Jarir reported – from Muhammad ibn Humayd, from Salama, from Ibn Ishaq, from Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Qurazi who said: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "The first of people to enter Paradise on the Day of Resurrection is the black servant" – that Allah sent a prophet to the people of a village, and of its inhabitants only that black man believed in him. The people of the village assaulted the prophet, dug a pit for him, threw him into it and covered him with a deaf stone. That servant would go cut wood on his back, bring his firewood, sell it and buy food and drink with it, then come to that pit, lift the stone – Allah helped him with it – lower his food and drink down to his prophet, then replace it as it was. It went on so as long as Allah willed.

One day he went out to cut wood as he used to; he gathered his wood, tied his bundle and finished it; when he wanted to carry it, he felt drowsiness and lay down to sleep. Allah closed his ear for seven years of sleep; then he woke, stretched, turned on his other side and lay down again: Allah closed his ear seven more years. Then he woke, carried his bundle, thinking he had slept only an hour of the day. He came to the village, sold his bundle, bought food and drink as he used to, then went to the pit, to the place where it had been: he looked for it and did not find it – its people had been exposed to the punishment, had come out of it, had believed in their prophet and confirmed him.

Their prophet would ask them about that black man: what has he done? They would say: we do not know – until Allah took the prophet (peace be upon him), and the black man woke from his sleep after that. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "That black man is indeed the first to enter Paradise. It is a mursal hadith, its like requires examination, and the development of his story is perhaps from Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Qurazi.

And Allah knows best. Ibn Jarir himself rejected it and said: "It is not permissible to hold these people to be the people of ar-Rass mentioned in the Quran": because Allah informed about the people of ar-Rass that He destroyed them, whereas these people, when the punishment appeared to them, believed in their prophet – unless events befell them and they believed in the prophet after the death of their fathers. And Allah knows best. Then he chose that they are the people of the Trench – and it is weak, for what preceded and for what is mentioned in the story of the people of the Trench: they were threatened with punishment in the hereafter if they did not repent, and their destruction is not mentioned, whereas the destruction of the people of ar-Rass is explicit.

And Allah knows best.

The people of Yasin

"Strike for them an example: the people of the city, when the sent ones came to it. When We sent them two, they denied them both; so We strengthened them with a third, and they said: we are sent to you. They said: you are only humans like us; the Merciful has sent down nothing: you only lie. They said: our Lord knows that we are sent to you, and our duty is only clear transmission.

They said: we see in you an evil omen; if you do not desist, we will stone you and a painful punishment from us will touch you. They said: your omen is with you. Is it because you were reminded? Rather, you are an outrageous people.

And there came from the farthest part of the city a man running; he said: O my people, follow the sent ones; follow those who ask you no wage and are rightly guided. And why should I not worship He who created me, and to whom you will be returned? Should I take gods other than Him? If the Merciful intends me harm, their intercession will avail me nothing, nor will they save me: I would then be in clear error.

I have believed in your Lord: listen to me. It was said: enter Paradise. He said: if only my people knew, of what my Lord has forgiven me and that He placed me among the honored. And We sent not down upon his people after him any army from the sky, nor were We sending down.

It was but one shout, and behold, they were extinguished."

Surah Yasin, 13-29

It is famous among many of the salaf and the khalaf that this city is Antioch: Ibn Ishaq reported it in what reached him from Ibn Abbas, Ka'b al-Ahbar and Wahb ibn Munabbih; and likewise from Burayda ibn al-Husayb, Ikrima, Qatada, az-Zuhri and others. Ibn Ishaq said, in what reached him from Ibn Abbas, Ka'b and Wahb: they said its capital had a king named Antiqus ibn Antiqus, who worshipped idols, and Allah sent to him three of the messengers: Sadiq, Saduq and Shalum, and they denied them. "It is evident that they are messengers come from Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Qatada claimed they were messengers from the Messiah.

Likewise Ibn Jurayj, from Wahb ibn Sulayman, from Shu'ayb al-Jaba'i: the names of the first two messengers were Sham'un (Simon) and Yuhanna (John), the name of the third Bulus (Paul), and the city Antioch. That opinion is very weak: when the Messiah sent three of the apostles to the people of Antioch, it was the first city to believe in the Messiah at that time; hence it is one of the four cities where the patriarch of the Christians is found: Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria and Rome – then Constantinople after. And they were not destroyed, whereas the people of the city mentioned in the Quran were destroyed, as said at the end of its story after they killed the truthful one of the sent ones: "Strike for them an example: the people of the city, when the sent ones came to it. But if the three messengers mentioned in the Quran were sent long ago to the people of Antioch, who denied them and Allah destroyed them, and the city was then repopulated – and in the time of the Messiah its people believed in the messengers sent to them – nothing prevents that.

And Allah knows best. As for the view that this story mentioned in the Quran is the story of the companions of the Messiah, it is weak, for what preceded and because the apparent context of the Quran requires that these messengers are from Allah.

Allah the Most High said: "Strike for them an example" – that is: to your people, O Muhammad: the people of the city, meaning the Medina – "when the sent ones came to it: when We sent them two, they denied them both; so We strengthened them with a third" – that is: We supported the two with a third in the message – "and they said: we are sent to you. They answered them that they were humans like them, as the disbelieving nations had answered their messengers, finding it strange that Allah would send a human prophet; and they answered them that Allah knows they are His messengers to them, and had they lied about Him He would have punished them and taken from them the severest revenge. "And our duty is only clear transmission" – that is: our charge is only to transmit to you what we were sent with to you, and Allah is He who guides whom He wills and leads astray whom He wills. "They said: we see in you an evil omen" – that is: we draw bad omens from what you bring us – "if you do not desist, we will stone you": said by word; and said by deed.

Confirming the first is their saying: "and a painful punishment from us will touch you": they threatened them with death and humiliation. "They said: your omen is with you" – that is: turned back upon you – "is it because you were reminded?": because we reminded you of the guidance and called you to it, you threaten us with death and humiliation – "rather, you are an outrageous people": you do not accept the truth and do not want it.

His saying: "And there came from the farthest part of the city a man running" – for the support of the messengers and the manifestation of faith in them. He said: "O my people, follow the sent ones; follow those who ask you no wage and are rightly guided": they call you to pure truth, without wage or payment. Then he called them to the worship of Allah alone without associate, forbade them the worship of other than Him, which profits nothing, neither in this world nor the hereafter. "I would then be in clear error": if I abandoned the worship of Allah and worshipped other than Him.

Then he said, addressing the messengers: "I have believed in your Lord: listen to me" – that is: listen to my statement and witness it for me before your Lord. And it was said: its meaning is: listen, O my people, to my faith in the messengers of Allah, openly. Then they killed him: said by stoning; said by biting; said: they leaped upon him as one man and killed him. Ibn Ishaq related from some of his companions, from Ibn Mas'ud who said: "They crushed him under their feet until they brought out his entrails."

Ath-Thawri reported, from Asim al-Ahwal, from Abu Mijlaz: the name of this man was Habib ibn Murri. Then it was said: he was a carpenter; said: a rope-maker; said: a shoemaker; said: a dyer; said: he devoted himself to worship in a cave there. And Allah knows best. From Ibn Abbas: Habib the carpenter had been afflicted early with leprosy, and he was very charitable; his people killed him.

That is why Allah said: "Enter Paradise" – that is: when his people killed him, Allah admitted him into Paradise. When he saw what was in it of freshness and joy, he said: "If only my people knew, of what my Lord has forgiven me and that He placed me among the honored" – that is: that they believe in what I believed in, and that there come to them what came to me. Ibn Abbas said: "He counseled his people during his life: O my people, follow the sent ones; and after his death: If only my people knew, of what my Lord has forgiven me and that He placed me among the honored." Ibn Abi Hatim reported it. Qatada said likewise: "You meet the believer only as a sincere adviser, never a deceiver." When he beheld what he beheld of the generosity of Allah, he said: "If only my people knew...", wishing from Allah that his people know what he had beheld of Allah's generosity and what had befallen him. Qatada said: by Allah, Allah did not blame his people after his killing except by: "It was but one shout, and behold, they were extinguished."

His saying: "And We sent not down upon his people after him any army from the sky, nor were We sending down" – that is: We had no need, in vengeance upon them, to send down on them an army from the sky. That is the meaning of what Ibn Ishaq reported from some of his companions, from Ibn Mas'ud. Mujahid and Qatada said: "and We did not send down on them an army" – meaning: another message. Ibn Jarir said: the first is more fitting; and I say: the stronger. That is why he said: "nor were We sending down" – that is: we had no need of that for vengeance, when they denied Our messengers and killed Our ally – "It was but one shout, and behold, they were extinguished."

The exegetes said: Allah sent Jibril (peace be upon him), who seized the two doorposts of their city's gate, then shouted at them one shout, and behold, they were extinguished – their voices extinguished, their movements stilled, remaining of them no eye that blinked. All of that indicates that this city is not Antioch: these were destroyed for denying the messengers of Allah who came to them, whereas the people of Antioch believed and followed the messengers of the Messiah, the apostles who came to them. Hence it is said: Antioch was the first city to believe in the Messiah. As for the hadith reported by at-Tabarani, from Husayn al-Ashqar, from Sufyan ibn Uyayna, from Ibn Abi Najih, from Mujahid, from Ibn Abbas, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "The preceders are three: the preceder to Musa is Yusha ibn Nun; the preceder to Issa is the companion of Yasin; the preceder to Muhammad is Ali ibn Abi Talib" – that hadith does not stand: this Husayn is abandoned and a Shi'ite of the ghulat, and his sole transmission of it indicates its total weakness.

And Allah knows best.