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Surah Al-A'raf, verse 163: meaning and tafsir
وَسْـَٔلْهُمْ عَنِ ٱلْقَرْيَةِ ٱلَّتِى كَانَتْ حَاضِرَةَ ٱلْبَحْرِ إِذْ يَعْدُونَ فِى ٱلسَّبْتِ إِذْ تَأْتِيهِمْ حِيتَانُهُمْ يَوْمَ سَبْتِهِمْ شُرَّعًا وَيَوْمَ لَا يَسْبِتُونَ ۙ لَا تَأْتِيهِمْ ۚ كَذَٰلِكَ نَبْلُوهُم بِمَا كَانُوا۟ يَفْسُقُونَ ١٦٣
Ask them [O Prophet] about the town which was by the sea and how they broke the Sabbath[63]. The fish would come to them appearing on the surface of the water on Sabbath days, but when it was not Sabbath, they would not come. This is how We tested them for their rebelliousness.
Translation of the meanings: Rowwad Translation Center — version 1.0.19 · QuranEnc.com
[63] This is another act of violation some of them committed.
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Al-Mukhtasar: Abridged Explanation of the Quran
Tafsir Center for Quranic Studies · QuranEnc.com
163. Ask the Jews about how Allah punished some of the Israelites. Remind them of the story of the town which was near to the sea where they used to overstep the limits of Allah: fishing on the Sabbath after they had been forbidden from doing so. Allah tested them by making the fish come to them so that they could see them clearly on the surface of the sea on Saturday, and then making them disappear from view during the rest of the week. Allah gave them this trial because of their disobedience and wrongdoing. So eventually they decided to fish by setting up their nets thereby using a trick, so that the fish would fall into them on Saturday and they could take them and eat them on Sunday.
Quran text: Tanzil Project (Tanzil Quran Text, Uthmani v1.1, CC BY 3.0). The translation and tafsir are quoted word for word, unchanged, from the Noble Quran Encyclopedia, QuranEnc.com, each credited to its source. Details on our sources page. These texts are quoted exactly as published; no answer is written by AI. Quran Chat does not issue fatwas.