Quran Universe

The Sabbath-breakers, c. 1005 BCE

Chapter 4 · Musa and the Children of Israel32 / 52

EventAylah, Gulf of Aqabaabout 3,000 years ago

Traditional date, disputed

The Sabbath-breakers

In a town by the sea, fish swarm on the Sabbath, when fishing is forbidden. Some trick the law; others warn them. Only the warners are saved.

And ask them about the town that was by the sea - when they transgressed in [the matter of] the sabbath - when their fish came to them openly on their sabbath day, and the day they had no sabbath they did not come to them. Thus did We give them trial because they were defiantly disobedient.

Quran 7:163

7:163-1662:65-66

Source: Quran, Ibn Kathir ·

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Borders come from Cliopatria, the open map of the Seshat Global History Databank (CC BY 4.0), and are approximate. Dates before 1000 BCE are estimates, and for the earliest prophets the Quran gives the order of events but not their years. Sources: the Quran, Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim, the Seerah of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wan-Nihaya, and standard histories. See also the villains of Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal, and the library of people, nations, empires and places.

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