Stories of the Prophets.

The story of Swaleh (A.S)

This tribe was known as the “SAMUD” tribe. After the tribe of Aad, the Samud tribe succeeded them.

The people of this tribe used to make their houses in the mountains.

Imagine cutting rocks and making houses in them. 

Providing all irrigation facilities on mountains as well as cutting stones is not an easy job without modern amenities.

-       Allah had given the people of Samud everything, wealth, power, children, houses which they made with unique skills, water in abundance, gardens, farms, everything.

-       But they followed the footsteps of their forefathers, Aad and Nuh (A.S) tribe. They thought that the people of Aad lived on plain land and we live in the mountains so no one could harm us.

-       These people used all of Allah’s bounties but did not worship him. They were not grateful towards Allah nor did they bother about Allah nor they ever ask that why they were on earth or who gave them these bounties.

For the people of Samud, stones were like their servants, it obeyed all of their commands, Allah had skilled them to cut stones and they could do a lot with them, instead these people made idols of stones and worship them.

Is this not the height of foolishness? To create your own idol, worship it and ask from it? They made the world their aim and never thought about death, they had become worse than animals.

When they reached the peak of ignorance, Allah sent his nabi, Swaleh (A.S) to them.

Swaleh (A.S) used to be a very clever child, his father and everyone used to think that Swaleh (A.S) was such a nice lad and he would become very great and have all the luxuries of life.

Well, Allah had other plans for him and yes, Allah made him great and his story is in the Quran and we are reading it till date.

Allah made him his Nabi (prophet) so he could take the people out of darkness and toward noor (light).

When Swaleh (A.S) went to his people and told them that there is no one worthy except Allah and to worship and trust Allah and only Allah, ask all your wishes from Allah and when you die, Allah will make you alive again and take your hisaab and that he was their nabi (prophet) and he was send by Allah toward them for their guidance and hidayat.

Those who were rich mocked him. The told him, “How could you be the chosen one as a nabi (prophet), you are poor and you have nothing to ne a nabi (prophet).” But Swaleh (A.S) continued the job which was given by Allah. The poor of his tribe accepted Imaan, which was like a danger signal to the rich. What if common man accepts Imaan and Swaleh (A.S) davaat then slowly their power might get diminished and what if his davaat and everyone accepts Imaan?

The rich people went to the poor people and tried their best to convince them. They told them, “Swaleh (A.S) is a human like you and me. He eats and drinks like you and me, he goes to the market like you and me. Why do you have to accept his davaat?” etc. etc.

But Swaleh (A.S) did not despair. He continued his work.

Each nabi (prophet) came and davaat, “Whatever is in this world and all the things in this world have no power to do anything, and all powers are in the hand of Allah alone. From a dot to a mountain, from an ant to Gibraeel (A.S) everything is Allah’s Makhlooq. Allah is Khaliq, the creator and everything is his creation.”

Swaleh (A.S) gave his davaat to the people and the people tod him, “All our hopes about you have gone down the drain. You are wasting your life.”

Yet Swaleh (A.S) tried his best to make his people understand, his love for his people made him do so. He kept telling them in different ways. Sometimes he spoke to them about death, sometimes something, sometimes something else. He told them, “See I don’t want anything from you, I will take my reward from Allah. See I am telling you for your own good only etc.” But people only ran away from him. They told him, “If you are truthful show us some proof.” “What proof?” asked Swaleh (A.S). They said, “From that mountain take out a she-camel which is 10 months pregnant and gives birth as soon as she comes out of the mountain.”

They thought only a camel can give birth to a camel. How can a stone produce a camel? This was a trick just to get rid of Swaleh (A.S) and his davaat, and not to understand the truth which Swaleh (A.S) as trying to teach them.

So now Swaleh (A.S) warned them, “Even after seeing this she-camel, if you won’t accept imaan, Allah will be very angry with you. Will you believe after seeing this camel?”

They promised that they would. Everyone came and them Swaleh (A.S) prayed to Allah regarding the she-camel, and then from the mountain, from the stone mountain, a she-camel came out and she was pregnant. All these people saw this with their own eyes, this miracle. But they did not believe in Allah and they asked for some more time.

This she-came was huge in size, she was taller that the other animals and she used to drink up all the water in the pond and that day the people of Samud used to get milk to drink, instead of water. And this she-camel was so huge that where ever she used to go all the other animals used to run away. So now the people started getting angry and they wanted to get rid of this camel.

Swaleh (A.S) had warned them, “This is Allah’s she-camel. You fix one day for this she-camel and one day for your animals.” But all they wanted to do was to kill the she-camel somehow. Swaleh (A.S) warned them, “If you touch this camel with any bad intention you will get Allah’s azaab (punishment). This is Allah’s she-camel and it is eating Allah’s grass or the grass provided by Allah and drinking Allah’s water or the water provided by Allah. This she-camel walks on the land which is made by Allah.”

Now the peoples plan was to kill this he-camel, so they had a meeting as to how to kill this she-camel. Nine of them planned to kill this she-camel and finally succeeded. And when Swaleh (A.S) heard this news and he was extremely unhappy. These 9 people planned to also kill Swaleh (A.S) and his family. But, Allah also has a plan.

Swaleh (A.S) told them, “Allahs azaab (punishment) will come after 3 days.” And they mocked him. On the 4th day there was an earthquake and a scream, which made the buildings fall and the people couldn’t bear the scream. Nor their eardrums or heart bear the scream and eventually everyone died with no one to even mourn for them. The whole city was washed away.

When this azaab (punishment) came, Swaleh (A.S) was told to go out of the city with his family. When he went out of the city her said, “O my people, I did my best to make you understand but nothing did good.”

Once our Nabi (S.A.W) passed this town of Samud with his sahabas, he told them to go past this town as soon as possible, as this is a place where Allah’s azaab (punishment) came.