Al-Fajr – Verse 9 – The Ocean of the Quran

وَثَمودَ الَّذينَ جابُوا الصَّخرَ بِالوادِ

And [the people of] Thamūd, who hewed out the rocks in the valley.

EXEGESIS

The third person, plural, perfect tense verb jābū has as its root letters j-w-b, which has a number of meanings, including: to pierce, to make a hole, to cut out, to split, to roam, to go about. Here, it means: to hollow out and use for dwellings.^{‎[1]Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 180.}

The noun ṣakhr means rock/rocks.^{‎[2]Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 513.} It belongs to a group of words that have a collective meaning in their singular form and are used for natural features and animals.^{‎[3]A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language, p. 29.}

EXPOSITION

The proper name Thamūd in the Quran refers to a pre-Islamic people who lived subsequent to the community of ʿĀd (7:74). The root letters of the noun Thamūd are th-m-d, meaning little water, to dig for water, a ditch in which water seeps, and the name of a people suffering scarcity of water.^{‎[4]Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 146.} Prophet Ṣāliḥ (a) had been sent to them as a warner (11:16). It is said they lived a comfortable and luxurious life. They dwelt in northern Arabia, particularly in al-Ḥijr, which is situated in the middle of a plain enclosed by towering sandstone cliffs. Ṭūsī writes (and this seems to be his preferred opinion) that the phrase jābū al-ṣakhra means that they cut out the rocks in the mountains by means of their immense strength^{‎[5]Tibyan, 10/343.} and built strong dwellings and cisterns^{‎[6]Razi, 31/154.} therein, as is corroborated for these people in verses of the Quran such as in 26:149.^{‎[7]Tabrisi.J, 6/487; Mizan, 20/281.} Not only did they hew dwellings in the mountains but they also built palaces in the plains (7:74).

It is reported that when Prophet Muhammad (s) reached the valley of Wādī al-Qurā^{‎[8]Ibn Abbas, p. 753; Irshād al-Adhhān, 1/599; al-Aṣfā fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 2/1439.} that was once inhabited by the tribe of Thamūd on his way to Tabūk, he asked his companions while riding his mount to: ‘Make haste [from this place], for it is an accursed land!’^{‎[9]Bursawi, 10/425.}

Indeed, ruins of edifices hewn into the mountains can be witnessed there even today and in Petra in Jordan. In the first century CE, al-Ḥijr served as an important administrative and commercial centre for the Nabataeans. These people, to the north of Arabia, had their capital in Petra and flourished during the Greco-Roman period (330 BCE – 240 CE) and were idolatrous.^{‎[10]Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 142.} Al-Ḥijr fell at the southern tip of their kingdom.^{‎[11]Archaeology and the Qur’an, EQ 1.} Thus al-Ḥijr reached its zenith in the first century CE when as many as eighty monumental tomb-like edifices were carved into the surrounding sandstone cliffs. A few Thamūdic inscriptions have been found at this place but only one has been dated to 267 CE, being a bilingual inscription in Nabataeo-Thamūdic.^{‎[12]Ḥijr, EQ 2.}

The Thamūd as an ancient people were well known both during and prior to the time of Prophet Muhammad (s), by both the Arabs and the non-Arabs alike. The example of Umayyah ibn Abī al-Ṣalt has already been cited.

In non-Arabian sources, their mention is found in Ptolemy’s (d. 168 CE) Geography and in Pliny the Elder’s (d. 79 CE) Natural History.^{‎[13]Arab Prophets of the Qur’an and the Bible, p. 38.} Their earliest mention occurs in an Assyrian text which lists tribes defeated by the Assyrian ruler Sargon II who lived circa 721-705 BCE.^{‎[14]Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 68; Arab Prophets of the Qur’an and the Bible, p. 38.} A bilingual Greek-Nabataean dedicatory inscription dated 166-169 CE records the erection of a temple dedicated to the god Ilāha by a confederation of the Thamūd in cooperation with the Roman governor who had made peace with them, in north-west Arabia, at a place called Rawwafa.^{‎[15]Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 68; Arab Prophets of the Qur’an and the Bible, p. 38.} Mention is also found of two military units drawn from the Thamūd and serving in the Byzantine army in Palestine and Egypt in the fourth century CE.^{‎[16]Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 68; Arab Prophets of the Qur’an and the Bible, p. 38.} Muslim historians as well as Arab poets of the sixth century CE considered the Thamūd to be an extinct people and so it is not clear to whom the Thamūd in the records mentioned above refer. Nevertheless, the sustained mention of the Thamūd over a considerable period of time, spanning many centuries as observed above, is not surprising in light of the Quran’s narrative about these people. When the Quran mentions the punishment that came upon the Thamūd of Prophet Ṣāliḥ (a), it also mentions that not all the members of Thamūd perished; rather, Prophet Ṣāliḥ (a) and those who believed from among the Thamūd were saved (7:79, 41:18) due to God’s mercy (11:66). It is therefore not improbable that the surviving members of this community subsequently multiplied. The architectural style of the temple dated 166-169 CE is Nabataean and this may mean that the subsequent Thamūd had become acculturated to the Nabataeans over time,^{‎[17]Thamud, EQ 5.} or that the Thamūd were the Nabataeans as suggested by Muhammad ibn Saʿd in his work, al-Ṭabaqāt.^{‎[18]Cited in Thamud, EQ 5.} It is also suggested that the original Arab tribe probably died out or dispersed at some point and another group adopted this name due to its antiquity.^{‎[19]Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 69.} The Quran suggests that their remains were observable at the time of the Prophet, which could be remains other than those seen today and older to them, where the former have now disappeared. In such a case the ruins observable today belong to a later Thamūd, probably the remnants of those who survived the punishment and who became acculturated to the Nabataeans, or belong to those people who subsequently adopted the name of this ancient community. The Thamūd of the period straddling the end of the first millennium BCE and the beginning of the first millennium CE were idolatrous, and hence if they had any relation with the ancient Thamūd then these seem to have regressed to idol worship. On the other hand, the Thamūd of Prophet Ṣāliḥ (a) could be the Nabataeans of the time period straddling the end of the first millennium BCE and the beginning of the first millennium CE whose remains can be seen even today. And God knows best.

[1] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 180.
[2] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 513.
[3] A New Arabic Grammar of the Written Language, p. 29.
[4] Arabic-English Dictionary of Qur’anic Usage, p. 146.
[5] Tibyan, 10/343.
[6] Razi, 31/154.
[7] Tabrisi.J, 6/487; Mizan, 20/281.
[8] Ibn Abbas, p. 753; Irshād al-Adhhān, 1/599; al-Aṣfā fī Tafsīr al-Qurʾān, 2/1439.
[9] Bursawi, 10/425.
[10] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 142.
[11] Archaeology and the Qur’an, EQ 1.
[12] Ḥijr, EQ 2.
[13] Arab Prophets of the Qur’an and the Bible, p. 38.
[14] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 68; Arab Prophets of the Qur’an and the Bible, p. 38.
[15] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 68; Arab Prophets of the Qur’an and the Bible, p. 38.
[16] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 68; Arab Prophets of the Qur’an and the Bible, p. 38.
[17] Thamud, EQ 5.
[18] Cited in Thamud, EQ 5.
[19] Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam, p. 69.