What a miracle Prophet Saleh's camel is

 

What a miracle Prophet Saleh's camel is

Camels are special animals. In addition to its beneficial milk and meat, camels are also mentioned in the Quran and met with a very proud people, the Thamud people, the people of Prophet Saleh.

For the Thamud people, Saleh is the focus of hope. Before being sent as a Messenger, he seemed to be a perfect figure: famous and expected to become the leader of the Thamud people. However, when he invited to worship God and abandon idols, everything faded.

It was as if when Saleh called on them to worship Allah, some of their interests were disturbed, some of their institutions were harmed so that they were like people licking their own spit. They glorified Saleh before he was sent as a Messenger and disobeyed him when he was sent as a Messenger.

Then came a camel that appeared between two split hills, as an answer to the Thamud's challenge to Saleh's prophethood. The arrival of this camel became a benchmark of the Thamud people's faith in the message brought by Prophet Saleh.

The camel is magical. He was not born, appeared from behind the mountain and was neither male nor female. But, can give birth to children. The milk is enough to drink the entire Thamud tribe for a whole day.

Every day the camel becomes the focus of Thamud community life. Especially when the lack of water hit this people. Milk from camels is used as a substitute for water.

"Please make the best use of the camel. Take the milk as you like. But don't let you kill him," said Prophet Saleh. "If you kill him, you will receive God's punishment," he added.

Thamud's believers obeyed the orders of the Prophet Salih. However, it is different with the disbelievers. They are even curious to find a way to kill the camel.

They began to gather to determine when and who would kill the camel. They had prepared war equipment to resist the punishment that Salih had promised if anything happened to the camel. They thought that the 'sophisticated' tools of their time could defeat the power of God.

But what human power. Pride does not guarantee their safety. At the appointed time, when their messenger had succeeded in killing the camel, the doom had indeed come. The tools they were proud of were actually unable to ward off the promised doom.

"Indeed We brought upon them a loud sound of thunder, so they became like dry grass (gathered by) those who have animal cages." (Surat al-Qamar [54]: 31).

The arrogance of the Thamud has dulled their hearts. So that they can't see the benefits that the magical camel has given to their people. They felt great beyond the greatness of God, so they ignored the threat that Prophet Saleh had given them.

*Extracted from the book "Al-Quran Fables: 16 Stories of Special Animals Immortalized by the Al-Quran" and Al-Razy's Tafsir Mafatih al-Ghaib.