Обсуждение:Салих

Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān / Ṣāliḥ

A messenger (q.v.) sent to the people of Thamūd (q.v.), named nine times in the Qurʾān. His story is dealt with in a number of passages ( q 7:73-9; 11:61-8; 26:141-59; 27:45-53; 54:23-31; 91:11-5), and in other verses mention is made of the people of Thamūd and their fate.

The Qurʾān does not contain a complete narrative of the story of this messenger and the events that led his people to punishment and destruction, but it does mention (and occasionally repeats some details of) his mission among his people. Particular attention is given to the words of Ṣāliḥ when summoning his people to faith in God ( q 7:73 f.; 11:61 f.; 26:142 f.; 27:45 f.). Despite his urgings, they refuse to abandon the faith of their fathers ( q 11:62). When introducing the various versions of the speech of the messenger (q.v.) to his people, Ṣāliḥ is described as their “brother” ( q 7:73 and passim; see brother and ¶ brotherhood ). A chronological setting for these people and the story of Ṣāliḥ is clearly given when it is said that the Thamūd were the successors of the ʿĀd (q.v.). The Qurʾān describes the Thamūd as a prosperous people with castles, impressive buildings and gardens; one passage suggests that they rejected various messengers ( q 26:141).

The story of Ṣāliḥ proper is introduced with the statement that he was sent with a she-camel as a sign ( q 7:73; 11:64; 26:155; see signs; camel), a test ( q 54:27; see trial ), or a proof (q.v.; i.e. q 17:59) from God. This camel variously has the right to drink ( q 26:155; 91:13), or the water has to be shared between her and the Thamūd ( q 54:28). In the meantime, Ṣāliḥ's calls to faith prove fruitless, with the exception of a few followers. The haughty elders refuse to believe ( q 7:75) and openly challenge Ṣāliḥ, accusing him of being a simple man like themselves ( q 26:154; 54:24; see impeccability ) and even of being bewitched ( q 26:153; see insanity ). The destruction of these unbelievers (see belief and unbelief ) is precipitated when they hamstring the she-camel ( q 7:77; 11:65; 26:157; 91:14) as an act of resistance and rebellion, particularly on the part of one individual among them ( q 54:29). That malevolent act made punishment inevitable (see punishment stories; chastisement and punishment). It took the form of an earthquake that seized them ( q 7:78) or a thunderbolt that left them all dead. The end was, in fact, announced by Ṣāliḥ himself when he became aware of what had been done to the camel: he stated that the punishment would be upon them in three days ( q 11:65). In some passages allusion is made to the punishment by the expression that the Thamūd were overtaken by a shout (or cry) sent by God ( q 11:67; 54:31), which left them prostrate in their dwellings ( q 11:67). Ṣāliḥ and those who believed were ¶ naturally placed in safety ( q 11:66; 27:53). Finally, it should be noted that the version in q 27:45-53 differs almost completely from that given in the other passages, excluding details such as the she-camel, or a description of the type of event that caused the destruction of their houses.

Commentators on the Qurʾān (see exegesis of the qurʾān: classical and medieval ) and authors of literature on the prophets add further particulars to the portrait given here. For instance, some state that Ṣāliḥ started his prophetic mission when he was forty years old, as did Muḥammad; it is also said that he died in Mecca (q.v.) when he was fifty-eight. There are differing reports about Ṣāliḥ's genealogy and about the manner in which the she-camel was killed; sometimes the names of the torturer of the she-camel and his collaborators are given. The punishment that destroyed the Thamūd was announced three days in advance: first their faces turned yellow, then red, then black, and on the fourth day they were all dead. A report going back to the Prophet (see ḥadīth and the qurʾān ) mentions the case of one individual of the Thamūd who had escaped death because he was in the holy territory of Mecca when the destruction took place. This man, named Abū Righāl, did not, however, escape punishment after he left the holy territory.

Though the Thamūd are known from other sources, pre-Islamic attestations of the name Ṣāliḥ are very rare (see Rippin, Ṣāliḥ). Moreover, the story of Ṣāliḥ and the she-camel has no parallel in other religious traditions.

Primary

Ibn Kathīr, Bidāya, i, 130-8

Ibn Qutayba, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdallāh b. Muslim al-Dīnawarī, Kitāb al-Maʿārif, ed. Th. ʿUkāsha, ¶ Cairo 1960, 29-30

Kisāʿī, Qiṣaṣ, 110-7

al-Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir, Biḥār al-anwār, ed. Jawād al-ʿAlawī, Muḥammad Ākhundī et al., 110 vols., Tehran 1956-72, Beirut 19832, xi, 370-94

Muqātil, Tafsīr, i, 46-7

Muṭahhar b. Ṭāhir al-Maqdisī, al-Badʾ wa-l-taʾrīkh, ed. C. Huart, 6 vols. in 2, Paris 1899-1919, iii, 37-41

Quṭb al-Dīn al-Rāwandī, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, Beirut 1989, 95-100

al-Rabghūzī, Naṣr al-Dīn b. Burhān, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, ed. and trans. H.E. Boeschoten, J. O'Kane and M. Vandamme, Stories of the prophets, 2 vols., Leiden 1995, ii, 77-92

Suyūṭī, Durr, 8 vols., Cairo 1983, iii, 489-94

Ṭabarī, Tafsīr, Cairo 1968, viii, 224-34

id., Taʾrīkh, ed. de Goeje, i, 244-52

al-Ṭarafī, Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. Muṭarrif, Qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, in R. Tottoli (ed.), The stories of the prophets of Ibn Muṭarrif al-Ṭarafī, Berlin 2003, 55-7 (Ar. sect.), 50-2 (Eng. sect.)

Thaʿlabī, al-Kashf wa-l-bayān ʿan tafsīr al-Qurʾān, ed. A.M. b. ʿĀshūr, 10 vols., Beirut 2002, iv, 251-8

id., Qiṣaṣ, 57-63

Secondary

Horovitz, ku, 123

D. Marshall, God, Muhammad and the unbelievers, Richmond, Surrey 1999

G.D. Newby, The making of the last prophet, Columbia 1989, 58-64

Rippin, Ṣāliḥ, in ei2, viii, 984

R. Tottoli, Biblical prophets in the Qurʾān and Muslim literature, Richmond 2002, 47-8

B.M. Wheeler, Prophets in the Quran. An introduction to the Quran and Muslim exegesis, London 2002, 74-82

Cite this page

Tottoli, Roberto, “Ṣāliḥ”, in: Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Georgetown University, Washington DC. Consulted online on 07 January 2017 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1875-3922_q3_EQSIM_00367>