Al-Huda Foundation
THE PROPHETS OF ISLAM
PROPHET
SALEH
Saleh
was bom in the ninth generation from Nuh. He
was appointed prophet for the Thamud people who inhabited the moutanous
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 fulfilments 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 bom 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.