The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 158
CH. 11 HŪD PT. 12 قَالَ يُقَوْمِ اَرَيْتُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُ عَلَى بَيْنَةٍ He said, “O my people, tell. 64 PÄIJá EKSOI me, if I stand on a clear proof مِنْ رَّبِّي وَاثْنِي مِنْهُ رَحْمَةً فَمَنْ يَنْصُرُنِي from my Lord, and He has قف مِنَ اللهِ إِنْ عَصَيْتُهُ " فَمَا تَزِيْدُونَنِي غَيْرَ تَخْسِيرٍ granted me mercy from Himself, who then will help me against Allah, if I disobey Him? So you will not but add to my destruction. 1444 وَيُقَوْمِ هَذِهِ نَاقَةُ اللهِ لَكُمْ آيَةً فَذَرُوهَا And O my people, this is. 65 LEKE the she-camel of Allah as a Sign تَأْكُلْ فِي أَرْضِ اللهِ وَلَا تَمَسُّوهَا بِسُوءٍ for you, so let her alone that she فَيَأْخُذَكُمْ عَذَابٌ قَرِيْبٌ may feed in Allah's earth, and touch her not with harm lest a near punishment seize you. '1445 a11:29, 89. b7:74; 17:60; 26:156; 54:28; 91:14. of his teachings or had seen any sign in support of his mission. They accepted him on the basis of the evidence that his life was spotlessly pure. The words, And we are surely in disquieting doubt concerning that to which thou callest us, mean that, just as the taste of the mouth of a man who is suffering from some internal malady becomes vitiated, similarly, the hearts of these people having become corrupt, the very teaching which had come to remove doubts and misgivings appeared to them as creating doubts in their minds. 1444. Commentary: Ṣāliḥ here answers the objection of his people mentioned in the preceding verse to the effect that, but for the doubts created in their hearts by his teachings, they would have taken him as their chief. His reply is that if he is a true Messenger of God, it would do him no good to forsake Divine teachings and ally himself with them; it would bring on him only ruin and destruction. 1445. Commentary: Many legends have been woven round this ast (she-camel) of Ṣāliḥ. There is nothing in the Quran to lend support to these fanciful stories. One of these legends, for instance, is that she was miraculously born out of a rock in answer to a prayer of Ṣāliḥ when his people demanded from him a miracle and that she became pregnant at the time of her coming out of the rock, giving birth to a young one immediately after. The Quran, however, nowhere states that there was anything miraculous about her birth. On the contrary, it is clear from 26:154 & 159 that the birth of the she-camel was nothing out of the ordinary and that it was not her birth 1366