Surah Al-A'raf 7:77
ﱾ ﱿ ﲀ ﲁ ﲂ ﲃ ﲄ ﲅ ﲆ ﲇ ﲈ ﲉ ﲊ ﲋ ﲌ
So they hamstrung the she-camel and were insolent toward the command of their Lord and said, "O Salih, bring us what you promise us, if you should be of the messengers."
Tafsir of Al-A'raf 7:77
Tafsir
Ruh al-Ma'ani
Verse range: 7:77
*Fa‘aqaru an-naqah* (They hamstrung the she-camel): Meaning, they slaughtered it. Al-Azhari stated: The root of *‘aqr* (hamstringing) among the Arabs is the cutting of the camel’s hock, then it was used for the act of slaughter because the one who slaughters a camel hamstrings it, then slaughters it. Attributing this act to the entire group, even though the direct perpetrator was only a portion of them, is a figure of speech based on the collective involvement of the whole group in that act, due to it occurring in their midst and their collective agreement upon misguidance and disbelief, or because of their universal consent to it, or because all of them commanded it—as indicated by the Almighty’s saying: *"Then they called their companion, and he dared and hamstrung [her]"* (Al-Qamar: 29). It has been said that *‘aqr* is a linguistic metaphor for consent in relation to those who did not directly perform it, but this is an unfounded view.
*Wa ‘ata ‘an amri rabbihim* (And they were insolent toward the command of their Lord): Meaning, they grew arrogant toward obeying it. This refers to the prior command that Salih (peace be upon him) had conveyed to them; thus, "command" is in the singular, representing all commands. It has been suggested that it is singular, meaning "affairs," implying they grew arrogant toward the affair of Allah the Almighty and His religion, but this is far-fetched.
Some scholars argue that for the first interpretation, it is necessary to interpret ‘ata (insolence) as including the meaning of tawallaw (turning away), such that it means: "They turned away from obeying His command, being insolent," or to mean isdar (to originate), such that their insolence originated from the command of their Lord and was caused by it—for when He commanded them by saying, "So leave her," etc., He tested them, and they did not obey, thus becoming insolent on account of that command. Were it not for the command, the hamstringing would not have followed. The motivation for interpreting it as "turned away" or "originated" is that the verb ‘ata is not typically followed by ‘an (away from/toward), so its construction with ‘an necessitates this, similar to the Almighty’s saying: "And I did not do it of my own accord [‘an amri]." Others reject this inclusion of meaning, based on the view that ‘ata means istakbara (to be arrogant), as stated in al-Qamus, and it is transitive via ‘an. Understand this.
They said, addressing him (peace be upon him) by way of rendering him incapable and silencing him—according to their corrupt assumption—: "O Salih, bring us what you promise us"—meaning the punishment—and they kept the object of knowledge [the punishment] general, "if you are of the messengers."
The implication is that being one of them requires the truthfulness of what you say regarding promises and warnings.