Hazrat Saleh عليه السلام
These people are called the Samud tribe. After tribe Aad, tribe Samud succeeded them. These people use to make their houses in the mountains and hills.
Imagine cutting rocks and making houses in them. Then providing all irrigation facilities on the mountains itself. And cutting stones is not an easy job without modern amenities.
Allah had given them everything. Wealth, Power, children, houses which they made with their unique skill, water in abundance ,garden farms and everything that anyone would wish for.
But they followed the footsteps of their forefathers, Aad and Nuh عليه ألسلام. They thought that Aad lived on plain land we live in mountains, so no one can harm us.
These people used all of Allah's bounties and did not worship Allah. They were not grateful towards Allah. They were not bothered about Allah. They never asked “ why we are on earth?” “ who gave us all these bounties?”
Allah had skilled them to cut stones and they could do a lot with it. Stones were like their servants, it obeyed their commands but these foolish people us eto make idols out of stones and worship them.
Is this not the height of foolishness? Create your own idols and worship it and ask from it? They had made dunya their aim . they never thought of death. They had become worse than animals.
When they reached the peak of ignorance Allah sent his nabi to them his name was Saleh عليه السلام
Swaleh عليه السلام use to be very clever and everyone use to think “ this boy will one day become very great and he will have all the luxuries of life. He is such a nice lad” and so did his father think , the same.
Well Allah had other plans for him and Allah did make him great and his story is In the Quran and today we are reading his story. Allah made him his nabi عليه السلام to take his people out of darkness towards light(noor). Can any respect be greater than this?
When saleh عليه السلام went to his people and told them “there is no one worthy except Allah. Worship only Allah,trust only in Allah. Ask all your wishes from Allah. And when you die Allah will make you alive again and he will take your hisaab. And I am your nabi and I am sent by Allah towards you for your guidance for your hidayat ''.
Those who were rich and the aim of their lives was richness and this world, mocked him. They told him “ how could you be chosen as a Nabi. You are poor and you have nothing to become a nabi”.
But saleh عليه السلام continued his job given by Allah. The poor of his tribe accepted imaan, this was like a danger signal to the rich. If the common man accepts imaan and swaleh عليه السلام dawat ,then slowly our power might get diminished. And what if his dawat spreads? And what if all accept Imaan?
They went to the poor and tried their best to convince them. They said “Saleh عليه السلام is a human like you and me, he eats like you, he drinks like you, he goes to the bazaar like you. Why do you have to accept his dawat? etc
But saleh عليه السلام not despair. He continued his work. Each nabi came and gave this dawat, “whatever is in this dunya and all the things of this duniya has no power to do anything and all powers are in the hands of Allah alone. From a dot to a mountain. From an ant to jibrail عليه السلام everything is a makhluk. Allah is Khaliq, the creator and everything is his creation.
Saleh alaihisalaam gave his dawat. People told him “All our hopes about you are shattered. You are wasting your life. You have done nothing with your life”. Now if Saleh عليه السلام was wasting his life calling people towards Allah, then today we would have never heard this story of saleh عليه السلام
But for example if someone has specs and unless and until he wears he will not be able to see well. All these people wanted was the specs of ilm which would make them realize their foolishness.
But saleh عليه السلام tried his best to make his people understand his love for his people made him do so. He told them in different ways. Sometimes he spoke about death, sometimes he told them about the fact that “ see I don’t want anything from you. I will take my reward from Allah. See I am only telling you for your good etc, but people only ran away from him. They told him “if you are truthful, show us some proof”. Saleh عليه السلام asked “ what proof?” 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 camel come out from a stone? This was a trick just to get rid of saleh عليه السلام and his dawat. This was not to understand the truth.
So now saleh عليه السلام warned them “even after seeing the she-camel, if you will not accept imaan Allah will be very angry with you. Will you believe after seeing this camel?” they promised they would.
So everyone came. Then Saleh عليه السلام prayed to Allah for the she camel, from the stone of the huge mountain a she camel came out and she was pregnant. After coming out she gave birth. All this was seen by the people with their own eyes. But they did not believe in Allah. They asked for more time.
This she camel was huge in size. She was taller than the other animals. She use to drink all the water in the pond and that day the people of saleh عليه السلام use to get milk to drink instead of water. The she camel was so huge that wherever she went, all the other animals used to run away. Now the people started getting angry. They wanted to get rid of this camel.
Saleh عليه السلام had warned them “this is Allah's she camel. You fix one day for your animals and one day for this she camel”. But all they wanted was to kill the camel somehow.Saleh warned them “if you touch this camel with any bad intention Allah's azab will befall you. This is Allah's she camel, it is eating Allah's grass made by Allah and water of Allah or water sent by allah. It walks on land made by Allah” now people plan was to kill the she camel. 9 of thm planned to kill this she camel, and finally succeeded. And when saleh عليه السلام heard this news he was extremely unhappy. Now these 9 of them even planned to kill Saleh عليه السلام and his family. But Allah also has a plan. Saleh عليه السلام told them “ AIlah's azaab will befall them after 3 days”. They mocked him. On the 4th day there was an earthquake and a scream. Their eardrums could not bear the scream, their hearts could no longer bear it. Now they all dies with no one to mourn them, and the whole city was washed away.
When this Azab came Saleh عليه السلام was told to go out of the city with hs family. When he went out of this city he said “ O my people I did my best to make you understand but nothing did good”
Once our Nabi صلى الله عليه و سلم passed the town of Samud with his sahabas he told them to pass this town as soon as possible, this is a place where Allah's azab had come.
