People of Salih, ‘Alayhi al-Salam

Abu Ja’far (asws) having said: ‘The Messenger (saww) asked Jibraeel (as): ‘How were the people of Saleh (as) destroyed?’ So he said: ‘O Muhammad (saww)! Saleh (as) was Sent to his (as) people when he was sixteen years old. So he (saww) was with them until he (as) reached the age of one hundred and twenty years, they did not answer him (as) to the good. And they had for themselves seventy idols which they worshipped apart from Allah (azwj) Mighty and Majestic. So when he (as) saw that among them, he (as) said: ‘O people! I (as) was Sent to you all when I (as) was sixteen years old, and I (as) have now reached one hundred and twenty years, and I (as) present to you all two matters. If you like you can ask me until I (as) ask my (as) God (azwj) so He (azwj) would Answer you with regards to what you have asked me of within a short while. And if you like, I (as) would ask your gods, so if they answer me (as) by that which I (as) have asked them of, I (as) would go away from you all. So I (as) would have silenced you all and you would have silenced me (as)’. They said, ‘You (as) are being fair, O Saleh (as)’. So they prepared for the day that they will be going out for it. So they went out with their idols upon their backs, and prepared their food and drinks. So they ate and drank. When they finished, they called him (as) over. They said, ‘O Saleh (as)! Ask!’. So he (as) said to their elder: ‘What is the name of this one?’ He said, ‘Such and such’. So he (as) said to it: ‘O such and such! Answer me (as)!’ So it did not answer him (as)’. So Saleh (as) said: ‘What is the matter with it that it does not answer?’ They said, ‘Ask another one’. So he (as) asked all of them by their names, but they did not answer him (as) anything. So they turned towards their idols and said to them: ‘What is the matter with you all that you do not answer Saleh (as)?’ They did not answer. So they said, ‘Step away from us and leave us and our idols for a while’. Then they unrolled their rugs, and their furnishings, and their clothes, and wallowed upon the dust, and placed dust upon their heads, and said to their idols, ‘If you do not answer Saleh (as) today, you will be exposed’. Then they called him (as) over, so they said, ‘O Saleh (as)! Call to these (idols)’. So he (as) called upon them. They did not answer him (as). So he (as) said to them: ‘O People! Half the morning has passed and I (as) have not seen your gods to have answered me (as). So ask me (as), and I (as) shall ask my (as) God (azwj), and He (azwj) will Answer you shortly’. Seventy men from their elders were delegated to him (as) from the approved ones from among them, so they said, ‘O Saleh (as)! We ask you, so if your (as) Lord (azwj) were to answer us, we would follow you (as) and answer to you (as), and pledge our allegiances to you (as), all the people of our town altogether’. So Saleh (as) said to them: ‘Ask me (as) whatsoever you like’. So they said, ‘Walk with us towards this mountain’, and the mountain was quite near to them. So Saleh (as) went with them. When he (as) came up to the mountain, they said, ‘O Saleh (as)! Call upon your (as) Lord (azwj) for us, to bring out for us from this mountain this very moment, a blonde, tame, red she-camel with a distance of a mile between the two sides of the mountain’. So Saleh (as) said to them: ‘You have asked me (as) for something which is great for me (as), and is easy for my (as) Lord (azwj) Majestic and Mighty’. Saleh (as) asked Allah (azwj) the High for that. The mountain split asunder with such a split that their intellects took flight when they heard that rumble of it. Then the mountain trembled with a great tremble like a woman trembling during labour. Then only its head came out of the crack in the mountain. When its neck showed, it began to chew its cud. Then the rest of its body came out, and it stood erect upon the ground. So when they all saw that, they said, ‘O Saleh (as), with what ease has your (as) Lord (azwj) Answered you (as). Call upon your (as) Lord (azwj) for us to bring out for us its young’. So he (as) asked Allah (azwj) Mighty and Majestic for that. She brought it (babies) out and walked around them. So he (as) said to them: ‘O people! Does there remain anything else?’ They said, ‘No. Come with us to our people. We shall inform them of what we have seen and they will believe in you (as)’. So they returned, but before the seventy of them could reach them, sixty four of them had reneged, and they were saying, This is sorcery and a lie’. This was reflected by all of them. So the remaining six were saying that it is the truth, whilst all the others were saying that it is a lie and sorcery. Then they all dispersed upon that, and one of the six then was overcome by doubt. So he was the one who slay it. Ibn Mahboub (the narrator) said, ‘I narrated this Hadeeth to a man from our companions called Saeed Bin Yazeed. He informed me that he had seen the mountain from which (the she-camel) came out, in Syria. He said, ‘I saw its sides where the mountain split up, and the impact of it on its sides and the other side of it, and in between it and this one was a distance of a mile’.