Ṣāliḥ | |
|---|---|
| صَالِحٌ | |
 Salih leads a She-Camel from the side of a mountain. | |
| Resting place | Hasik (present dayOman) |
| Other names | PossiblySelah (שֶׁלַח) |
| Predecessor | Hud |
| Successor | Ibrahim |
| Relatives | Thamud |
Saleh orSalih (Arabic:صَالِحٌ,romanized: Ṣāliḥ) is aprophet mentioned in theQur'an[1][2] who prophesied to the tribe ofThamud[3][4][5] inancient Arabia, before the lifetime of the Islamic prophetMuhammad. The story of Salih is linked to the story of theShe-Camel of God, which was the gift given byGod to the people ofThamud when they desired a miracle to confirm that Salih was truly a prophet.
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The Thamud were a tribal confederation in the northwestern region of theArabian Peninsula, mentioned inAssyrian sources in the time ofSargon 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.[6]: 81
According to the Quran, the city that Saleh was sent to was calledAl-Ḥijr (Arabic:ٱلْحِجْرْ,lit. 'The Stonetown'),[7] which corresponds to theNabataean city ofHegra.[8] The city rose to prominence around the 1st century AD as an important site in the regional caravan trade.[9] Adjacent to the city were large, decorated rock-cut tombs used by members of various religious groups.[6]: 146 At an unknown point in ancient times, the site was abandoned and possibly functionally replaced byAl-'Ula.[10] The site has been referred to asMada'in Salih (Arabic:ﻣﺪﺍﺋﻦ ﺻﺎﻟﺢ,romanized: madāʼin Ṣāliḥ,lit. 'the cities of Saleh') since the era ofMuhammad and was named after his predecessor Salih.[11]
Saleh is not mentioned in any historical texts or in any of theAbrahamic scriptures that precede the Qur'an, 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".[6]: 223–24
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According to Muslim tradition, the people of Thamud virtually relied upon Saleh for support.[12] He was chosen byGod as aprophet (Arabic:نبي,romanized: nabi) and sent to preach against the selfishness of the wealthy and to condemn the practice ofshirk (Arabic:شِرْك,lit. 'polytheism'). Although Saleh preached for a sustained period of time, the people of Thamud refused to hear his warning and instead began to ask Saleh to perform a miracle for them. They said: “O Ṣâliḥ! We truly had high hopes in you before this. How dare you forbid us to worship what our forefathers had worshipped? We are certainly in alarming doubt about what you are inviting us to.”[12]
Saleh reminded his people of the castles and palaces they built out of stone,[13] and of their technological superiority over neighbouring communities. Furthermore, he told them about their ancestors, theʿĀd 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.[14]
In response, God gave the Thamud a blessedshe-camel (Arabic:نَاقة,romanized: naaqah,lit. 'female camel'), as both a means of sustenance and a test. The tribe was told to allow the camel to graze peacefully and avoid harming her.[15] But in defiance of Saleh's warning, the people of the tribehamstrung the camel.[16] Saleh informed them that they had only three more days to live before the wrath of God descended upon them.[17] The people of the city were remorseful,[18] but their crime could not be undone, and all the disbelieving people in the city were killed in anearthquake. Al-Hijr was rendered uninhabited and remained in ruins for all time thereafter.[19] Saleh himself and the few believers who followed him survived.[20]
The story is expanded upon inSūrat an-Naml of the Qur'an. Whilst the she-camel is not mentioned explicitly in this chapter, it states that nine men plotted to kill Salih and his whole family,[21][22] a crime for which they were struck down by God three days later.[17]
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.[23]
According to some Islamic scholars, the mother ofIsmail,Hajar, was a granddaughter of Saleh.[24]
A similar tradition is related in an eighth-century commentary on Islam byJohn of Damascus[25][26] and is also mentioned in the works ofIbn Kathir.[27]
The founder of theBaháʼí Faith,Bahá'u'lláh, briefly mentioned the story of the hamstrung she-camel in theLawh-i-Burhán,[1] and commented also upon Saleh's ministry in theKitáb-i-Íqán.[28]'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.[29]
In theKitáb-i-Íqán, 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."[2]
