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Newsletter for July 2016
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Prophet Saleh
by Syed Haider Hussain Shamsi
Saleh was born
in
the ninth generation from Nuh. He
was appointed prophet for the Thamud people
who inhabited the mutinous
territory between Hejaz and
Palestine. They
built their homes by hewing the
rocky faces of cliffs. They
lived long lives and worshiped
gods made from stone.
They
refused to listen to the wisdom
of Saleh and challenged him to
show them any sign to prove that
an invisible God existed. They
demanded a miracle at their
annual festival. They
told Saleh: "You pray to your
God and we will pray to ours. Let
us see whose prayer is accepted,
yours or ours. That
will decide the matter between
us.
They came in
drones from around the land and
gathered around their decorated
stone gods and brought offerings
for fulfillments of their
prayers. Clearly
the stone gods were unable to
respond to their prayers. They
then turned to Saleh and one of
them asked him to pray to his
God and to bring out a pregnant
camel from the large boulder
that was lying on the ground,
and if this she-camel had an
off-spring born in front of
their eyes, they would accept
Saleh's God as theirs as well.
Saleh prayed to The Almighty
Allah and sure enough a pregnant
she-camel rose out of the large
boulder and gave birth to a calf
as they watched. They
were clearly struck with wonder
on this miracle.
In accordance
with Allah's Command, Saleh told
the people that they must share
their drink with the camel. It
was agreed that the people would
use the water from the village
well on all days of the week
except one day which was
reserved for the camel and her
baby. But
they were a disobedient people. They
refused the animals to drink or
graze freely in the territory as
agreed, and forced Saleh to
assume their full
responsibility. Saleh
told them that the camel and her
baby were there because they had
asked for the miracle, and they
must take care of the animals. They
threatened to kill the two
animals. He
then reminded them of the
benevolence of Allah that only
He could bestow over His
creation without asking for it,
namely water, rain, fertility of
the land where crops grow, the
stone cliffs where they built
their homes, and the clean air
that they breathed. They
must refrain from their
threatened acts otherwise they
would bring down a disaster over
themselves.
One day the
people carried out their threat
and slew both the mother and her
baby camel. This
invited Allah's immediate
wrath.
Allah
instructed Saleh to leave the
territory along with his family
and a small group of true
believers before His wrath would
strike that insolent people. No
sooner the pious group
of believers had crossed over
the last of the cliffs, than a
tremendous earth quake -shook
the land with a blinding
lightning and an ear shattering
thunder. The
entire people in that territory
perished along with their false
gods.
References: al
Qur'an: Sura
Araf, Lud, Ibrahim, Hajar, Furqan,
Shu'ra' Nahl, Ankabooi, Ha-Meem
Sajdah, Zariyat, Qamar, al-Haqah,
Fajar, Shams. |
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