Saleh and the Samood

Saleh and the Samood People

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God had sent His punishment to the Aads who had disobeyed Hoodh.

Those who survived were frightened for some time but soon forgot all about Hoodh’s preaching and began to worship their stone gods once again. These people were called Samood. Like the Aads, they too were fair, tall and handsome.

They carved out magnificent houses from mountains and made beautiful palaces on the plains. But they were ungrateful people and did not obey God.

God sent them a prophet from amongst themselves. His name was Saleh. Saleh asked the Samoods to be good and believe in the one and only God. The poor amongst them listened to him but the rich did not.They were full of of pride and looked down upon the poor. They said, ‘Saleh, you were like us, what happened to you that you stop us from worshipping our gods?’ Saleh replied, ‘I am the prophet of God. He has sent me to tell you the truth. He created you from this earth and allows you to live on it. He has given you gardens, springs, meadows, delicious soft dates, and beautiful houses. Seek his forgiveness. In return, I don’t want anything from you. All I ask of you is to believe in the one and only God who has given you everything.

But the rich Samoods were annoyed and said, ‘All right, ask your God to show us a miracle, then we shall believe in Him.’ They asked Saleh to request his God to make a camel emerge from a mountain in front of them.

asked for. This camel is holy and sent by God at your request, to convince you of His presence. It is God’s will that she should graze in the fields and drink water one day and you can draw water the next day, turn by turn. None of you can the turn of the camel and her child.’ He also told them that if they bothered the camel, they would be punished by God.

The Samoods were, at first, both impressed and frightened. They had seen the miracle happen and believed that the camel, which had emerged from the mountain, was truly sent by God as that was what they had asked for. But, soon they began to grudge the camel and her child, their freedom to eat and drink undisturbed every alternate day. They did not want to share their water with her. So they made a plan, and one day some of them killed the camel.

When Saleh heard of this he was very sad. He told the Samoods, ‘You have committed a sin by disobeying God. You have made God very angry and He will soon punish you.’

And God punished the Samoods severely with a frightful shrieking sound, thunder, and lightening. The Samoods, who had not listened to Saleh, fell down on their faces on the ground when they heard the dreadful sound. In the morning, they were all found dead in their strong and beautiful houses which they had built for their protection.

Only the people who had believed in God and had listened to Saleh were saved.

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