فَبَدَّلَ ٱلَّذِينَ ظَلَمُوا۟ مِنْهُمْ قَوْلًا غَيْرَ ٱلَّذِى قِيلَ لَهُمْ فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمْ رِجْزًا مِّنَ ٱلسَّمَآءِ بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَظْلِمُونَ 162
Translations
But those who wronged among them changed [the words] to a statement other than that which had been said to them. So We sent upon them a punishment from the sky for the wrong that they were doing.
Transliteration
Fa-baddal-alladhīna ẓalamū minhum qawlan ghayra alladhī qīla lahum fa-arsalnā 'alayhim rijzan min-as-samā'i bi-mā kānū yaẓlimūn
Tafsir (Explanation)
This ayah describes the transgression of those among the Children of Israel who violated the command of Allah by entering the city differently than commanded (referring to the People of the Sabbath who were ordered to bow humbly but instead entered defiantly). Because they replaced obedience with disobedience and altered the divine command, Allah sent upon them a punishment from the sky in the form of a plague or torment. According to Ibn Kathir and Al-Tabari, this demonstrates that deliberate rejection and mockery of divine commands invites swift divine punishment, and that changing the word of God is the gravest of transgressions.
Revelation Context
This ayah is part of the story of the People of the Sabbath (Ahl as-Sabt) in Surah Al-A'raf, occurring in a Meccan surah. It illustrates the pattern throughout Quranic narrative where communities who distort Allah's commands face immediate consequences, serving as a warning to the Meccan polytheists and all believers about the danger of mockery and disobedience.
Related Hadiths
Related to the theme of divine punishment for transgression: the hadith in Sahih Muslim where the Prophet ﷺ warned that when a community openly commits sin and none forbid it, Allah sends general punishment upon all. Also relevant is the account in various hadith collections about the transformation of the Sabbath violators into apes, showing the reality of these punishments.
Themes
Key Lesson
Deliberately altering or mocking the commands of Allah brings swift consequences, and obedience must be complete and sincere—not superficial or defiant. This serves as a powerful reminder that we cannot negotiate with divine guidance or approach His commandments with anything less than full reverence and compliance.