The People of Saturday – Saturday Prohibition and Children of Israel's Disobedience
A group of Jews ( children of Israel ) were living in a port named Ilah – nowadays know as Ilat – somewhere probably at the shore of Red sea near Palestine . God prohibited them from fishing in Saturdays in order to test them [and reveal their real personality], but they disobeyed Him, and, consequently, faced God’s severe punishment whose explanation is stated in the Quran.
Concerning the mentioned event the Quran says, “Ask Jews about the story of the city which was at a sea – shore . Ask (them) about the time when the residents violated their God’s order on Saturdays”.
Saturdays were appointed as off – days by God; they were ordered to give up business and fishing, and perform the given ritual prayers of that day, but they breached the mentioned restriction. In its other verses the Quran explains what had said impliedly as, “ Remember when fishes emerged on the surface of water on Saturdays , but not in other days ”.
It is very obvious that fishing is the main source of providing alimentary and financial needs of those who live near seas. It seems that emergence of fishes on water was due to the previously constant holidays on Saturdays which made them unconsciously feel secure on Saturdays; hence, they appeared on the surface.
Either it was natural, or a divine reason was behind it [That is emergence of fishes on the surface of water], it was meant to be a mean to try Jews. The Holy Quran says, “This is how we tried them by what they were against it”. Their reactions to the mentioned order divided them in three groups: the first group who were the majority and disobeyed God; the second group who consisted of the minority, those who obeyed their God and forbade the others from dishonor and disobedience; and the third group who were indifferent, they neither followed the evil – doers, nor forbade them from disobedience.
In the next verses , the Quran states the dialogue between the later group and the second one , “ [ O Muhammad ] Remember when a group of them ( the third one ) said to another group ( the second one ) ,‘ Why do you advise and forbid from bad deeds a group of the sinfuls whom finally God will put to death or will punish severely ’. ‘ we are forbidding from evil – doings to perform our duty , so that we will have no responsibility for what they are doing and their ends in the afterlife world . Also, it is not unlikely that our advice influence them [and change them]; therefore, they may stop disobeying God ’ , the second group replied ” . But , at last mammonism dominated them all , except those who belonged to the second group , “ And they forgot [ ignored ] their God’s command , it was when we saved those who dissuaded and forbade others from ungodliness and sin , but the sinfuls were punished severely because of their sins and corruptions ” , the Quran says . Then the Holy Quran explains their end and punishment as following, “They violated our rules and disobeyed our command, hence, we told them [caused] to transform into monkeys [in an isolated area] ” .
How They Committed the Sin
There has been discussion on when those people began disobeying God. Regarding some narratives one can deduce that they initially applied what some people call ‘ religious deceit ’ : they prepared small pools – connected to sea through canals – whose entrances were opened on Saturday , consequently a lot of fishes were brought into the pool by the water currents . But, in the evenings when they were to return to sea, the doors were shut, and the following day they started fishing them all; they claimed that God had ordered them not to fish and what they did was trapping the fishes.
There are narratives which say they used to throw their hooks into water on Saturdays , then got them out of sea the following day ; thus , they fished through this process . The third and the last sort of narratives concerning those people state that they unshamefully fished on Saturdays , without any fear or deceit. Regarding all three kinds of narratives it is possible that all of them
will be true if we arrange them as following : they initially applied the so–called religious deceit by preparing small pools or by their hooks . These deeds underestimated and lessened the hideousness of committing sins and disobedience ; therefore , in the last phase they impudently fished , and earned a lot money .
