Q. Salamu alaikum wa
rahmatullah, Rabbi. In Sura al-Aʿraf it mentions a “city by the sea” which
caught fish on the Sabbath. Is this mentioned in the Torah?
A. Wa aleikum salaam wa
rahmatullah. The ayat that speak about this event are Sūrat l-Aʿrāf 162-164
7:162 But changed, those who
wronged among them, word other than that which was said to them. So We sent
upon them torment from the sky because they were doing wrong.
7:163 And ask them about the
town which was situated by the sea, when they transgressed in the matter of
Sabbath, when came to them their fish on the day of their Sabbath visibly and
on the day they had not Sabbath they did not come to them. Thus We test them
because they were defiantly disobeying.
7:164 And when said a community
among them, "Why do you preach a people, whom Allah is going to destroy
them or punish them with a punishment severe?" They said, "To be
absolved before your Lord and that they may become righteous."
This seems a very clear
parallel to Nechemiah 13:16-18. In that chapter Nehemiah rebukes some of the
Children of Israel for intermarrying pagan wives without conversion. Their
children could not speak Hebrew and they mixed the truth with falsehood. They
changed the Law of Torah and permitted the buying and selling of fish on the
Sabbath.
16 And the Tyrians [who]
sojourned there were bringing fish and all [types of] merchandise and selling
on the Sabbath to the people of Judea and in Jerusalem.
17 And I quarreled with the
dignitaries of Judea, and I said to them, "What is this bad thing that you
are doing-profaning the Sabbath day?
18 Did not your ancestors do
this, and our God brought upon us all this calamity, and upon this city, and
you are increasing the wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath?"
Ibn Kathir brings that “The
village mentioned here is Aylah, on the shore of the Qulzum (Red) Sea.” It is
interesting that during the period of the Qur’an the name for Jerusalem was
“Alyah”. This would imply that the “city by the sea” was Jerusalem. While
Jerusalem is located 50km from the Mediterranean Sea, this is only a 10 hour
journey by foot. It is conceivable that from the viewpoint of Makka, this was
“by the sea.” Indeed there are reports from travelers during Middle Ages
describing Jerusalem as if it were located on the sea.
In both accounts, the word
“city” qirya/ir is used.
Ibn Kathir explains about the
fish. “They began using deceitful means to avoid honoring the Sabbath by
placing nets, ropes and artificial pools of water for the purpose of fishing
before the Sabbath. When the fish came in abundance on Saturday as usual, they
were caught in the ropes and nets for the rest of Saturday. During the night,
the Jews collected the fish after the Sabbath ended.”
The Arabic is “idh tatihim
ḥitanuhum yawma sabtihim shurraʿan” (when came to them their fish on the
day of their Sabbath visibly). It does not explicitly say who caught the fish.
Ibn Kathir understood that they were caught passively in nets. The verse in
Nehemiah says the Tyrians sold the fish on the Sabbath, the wicked Jews
permitting to themselves the buying of fish on the Sabbath. The word shurraʿan
(visibly) is related to “he has ordained”, “an ordained way”, “a law” implying
that wicked citizens of the city had changed the law and believed they were
doing nothing wrong.
If correct, this account would
draw a parallel between what Nehemiah (pbuh) did and what the Prophet Muhammad
(pbuh) was dealing with. In each case, dealing with wicked people who had mixed
truth with falsehood.
In the Torah account the wicked
were intermarried with pagan Moabites and Ashdodites without conversion. They
were lead by Eliashiv the High Priest, who was the son-in- law of Sanballat.
Sanballat was the Persian appointed governor of the coast from Tyre to Egypt,
and commander of the Jewish garrisons in on the southern border of Egypt. The
term “Tyrians” may be a reference to his people. Sanballat is associated with a
heretical form of Judaism that gave birth to the Samaritans and Sadducees. Al
Jahiz and Ibn Hazm say that the Jews of the Qur’an were Sadducees.
This might also give further
insight into the words “but changed, those who wronged among them, word other
than that which was said to them.” Here the Prophet (pbuh) was not just talking
about the leaders of Medina changing one Torah Law from prohibited to
permitted, but the establishment of an entire religious sect based on Torah
teachings that were distorted by mixing with pagan elements. In the end, the
Prophet (pbuh), like Nehemiah (pbuh), was required to separate the faithful
from those who mixed truth with falsehood.
