Salih (; ar, صَالِحٌ, Ṣāliḥ, lit=Pious), also spelled Saleh (), is an
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
prophet
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
mentioned in the
Quran
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
who prophesied to the tribe of
Thamud
The Thamud ( ar, ثَمُوْد, translit=Ṯamūd) were an ancient Arabian tribe or tribal confederation that occupied the northwestern Arabian peninsula between the late-eighth century BCE, when they are attested in Assyrian sources, and the ...
in
ancient Arabia
Pre-Islamic Arabia ( ar, شبه الجزيرة العربية قبل الإسلام) refers to the Arabian Peninsula before the emergence of Islam in 610 CE.
Some of the settled communities developed into distinctive civilizations. Information ...
, before the lifetime of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
. The story of Salih is linked to the story of the
She-Camel of God
The She-Camel of God ( ar, نَـاقـة الله) in Islam was a miraculous female camel sent by God to the people of Thamud in Al-Hijr, after they demanded a miracle from the prophet Salih. The narrative and story of the she-camel is recorded ...
, which was the gift given by
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
to the people of Thamud when they desired a miracle to confirm that Salih was truly a prophet.
Historical context
The Thamud were a tribal confederation in the northwestern region of the
Arabian Peninsula, mentioned in
Assyrian sources in the time of
Sargon II. The tribe's name continues to appear in documents into the fourth century CE, but by the sixth century they were regarded as a group that had vanished long ago.
According to the Quran, the city that Saleh was sent to was called ''Al-Hijr'',
which corresponds to the
Nabataean
The Nabataeans or Nabateans (; Nabataean Aramaic: , , vocalized as ; Arabic: , , singular , ; compare grc, Ναβαταῖος, translit=Nabataîos; la, Nabataeus) were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern L ...
city of
Hegra. The city rose to prominence around the first century AD as an important site in the regional caravan trade. Adjacent to the city were large, decorated rock-cut tombs used by members of various religious groups.
At an unknown point in ancient times, the site was abandoned and possibly functionally replaced by
Al-'Ula. The site has been referred to as ''Mada'in Salih'' since the era of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...
, named after his predecessor Salih.
Outside of the Islamic and Baháʼí Faiths, Saleh is not mentioned in any other
Abrahamic scripture or contemporary historical text, but the account of Thamud's destruction may have been well known in ancient Arabia. The tribe's name is used in ancient Arabian poetry as a metaphor for "the transience of all things".
In Islam
Quran
![Salih and the she camel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Salih_and_the_she_camel.jpg)
Saleh's life in his community had been so righteous that the people of Thamud virtually relied upon him for support. He was chosen by
God
In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...
as a
Messenger and sent to preach against the selfishness of the wealthy and to condemn the practice of ''
shirk'' (
idolatry or
polytheism
Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, t ...
). Although Saleh preached the message for a sustained period of time, the people for Thamud refused to hear his warning and instead began to ask Saleh to perform a miracle for them. They said: "O Salih! Thou hast been of us! A centre of our hopes hitherto! Dost thou forbid us the worship of what our fathers worshiped? But we are really in suspicious (disquieting) doubt as to that to which thou invitest us."
Saleh reminded his people of the countless castles and palaces they built out of stone, and of their technological superiority over neighbouring communities. Furthermore, he told them about their ancestors, the
ʿĀd
ʿĀd ( ar, عَادٌ, ') is an ancient tribe mentioned frequently in the Qurʾān.
The tribe's members, referred to as ʿĀdites, formed a prosperous nation until they were destroyed in a violent storm. According to Islamic tradition, the st ...
tribe, and how they too were destroyed for their sins. Some of the people of Thamud believed Saleh's words, but the tribal leaders refused to listen to him and continued to demand that he demonstrate a miracle to prove his prophethood.
In response, God gave the Thamud a blessed
she-camel
The She-Camel of God ( ar, نَـاقـة الله) in Islam was a miraculous female camel sent by God to the people of Thamud in Al-Hijr, after they demanded a miracle from the prophet Salih. The narrative and story of the she-camel is recorded ...
, as both a means of sustenance and a test. The tribe was told to allow the camel to graze peacefully and avoid harming her.
[: "Now hath come unto you a clear (Sign) from your Lord! This she-camel of Allah is a Sign unto you: So leave her to graze in Allah's earth, and let her come to no harm, or ye shall be seized with a grievous punishment.'"] But in defiance of Saleh's warning, the people of the tribe
hamstrung the camel. Saleh informed them that they had only three more days to live before the wrath of God descended upon them. The people of the city were remorseful, but their crime could not be undone, and all the disbelieving people in the city were killed in an
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
. Al-Hijr was rendered uninhabited and remained in ruins for all time thereafter. Saleh himself and the few believers who followed him survived.
The story is expanded upon in
Sūrat an-Naml, whilst the she-camel is not mentioned explicitly here, it states that nine men plotted to kill Salih and his whole family, a crime for which they were struck down by God three days later.
Muslim tradition
Muslim writers have elaborated upon the story of Saleh and the she-camel. Early Islamic tradition often involved a motif of the camel miraculously emerging from stone, often accompanied by a calf, and the production of milk from the camel.
Al-Tabari states that Saleh summoned his people to a mountain, where they witnessed the rock miraculously split open, revealing the camel. The she-camel had a young calf. Saleh informed the Thamud that the older camel was to drink from their water source on one day, and they were to drink from it the next day. On days when they were not allowed to drink water, the camel provided them with milk. But God informed Saleh that a boy who would hamstring the camel would soon be born to the tribe, and that child was evil and grew unnaturally fast. The camel was indeed killed, and its calf cried out three times, signaling that the Thamud would be destroyed in three days. Their faces turned yellow, then red, then black, and they died on the third day as predicted.
According to some Islamic scholars, the mother of
Ismail
Ishmael ''Ismaḗl''; Classical/Qur'anic Arabic: إِسْمَٰعِيْل; Modern Standard Arabic: إِسْمَاعِيْل ''ʾIsmāʿīl''; la, Ismael was the first son of Abraham, the common patriarch of the Abrahamic religions; and is cons ...
,
Hajar, was a granddaughter of the prophet Salih.
A similar tradition is related in an eighth-century commentary on Islam by
John of Damascus and is also mentioned in the works of
Ibn Kathir.
In the Baháʼí Faith
The founder of the
Baháʼí Faith
The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the ...
,
Bahá'u'lláh, briefly mentioned the story of the hamstrung she-camel in the
''Lawh-i-Burhán'',
and commented also upon Saleh's ministry in the ''
Kitáb-i-Íqán
The ''Kitáb al-Íqán or Kitáb-i-Íqán'' ( fa, كتاب ايقان, ar, كتاب الإيقان "Book of Certitude") is one of many books held sacred by followers of the Baháʼí Faith; it is their primary theological work. One Baháʼí sch ...
''.
'Abdu'l-Bahá states that the she-camel symbolizes the holy spirit of Saleh and the camel's milk refers to the spiritual food that he offered to his people.
In the ''
Kitáb-i-Íqán
The ''Kitáb al-Íqán or Kitáb-i-Íqán'' ( fa, كتاب ايقان, ar, كتاب الإيقان "Book of Certitude") is one of many books held sacred by followers of the Baháʼí Faith; it is their primary theological work. One Baháʼí sch ...
'', Saleh is referred to as "the holy person of Sálih, Who again summoned the people to the river of everlasting life." Like other Prophets of God, the people of the time turned away from Him: "His admonitions, however, yielded no fruit, and His pleading proved of no avail....All this, although that eternal Beauty was summoning the people to no other than the city of God."
See also
*
Selah (biblical figure)
Selah ( he, שֶׁלַח, translit=Šélaḥ), Salah or Sala ( gr, Σαλά – ''Salá'') or Shelah is an ancestor of the Israelites and Ishmaelites according to the Table of Nations in . He is thus one of the table's "seventy names". He is also ...
*
Methuselah
Methuselah () ( he, מְתוּשֶׁלַח ''Məṯūšélaḥ'', in pausa ''Məṯūšālaḥ'', "His death shall send" or "Man of the javelin" or "Death of Sword";
gr, Μαθουσάλας ''Mathousalas'') was a biblical patriarch and a f ...
*
Biblical and Quranic narratives
The Quran, the central religious text of Islam, contains references to more than fifty people and events also found in the Bible. While the stories told in each book are generally comparable, there are also some notable differences. Knowing t ...
*
List of notable Hijazis
The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provinc ...
*
Prophets and messengers in Islam
Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets a ...
* ''
Qiṣaṣ al-Anbiyāʾ'' ("Stories of the Prophets")
*
Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude)
References
External links
Maqam Nebi Saleh (Acre) one of the purported locations of prophet Saleh's burial
{{Qur'anic people
Arab prophets
Prophets of the Quran