Al-A'raf 163: Ask them about the people of the city that lay at the seashore. They were being disrespectful against the day of Saturday and were transgressing. (They were doing so) because on Saturday – the day they were resting – fish appeared to them in abundance. And on the days other than Saturday, they did not appear. Because they went astray, they were going through a test (to prove to themselves their character).

Surah Al-A'raf, verse 163 says: Ask them about the situation of the seaside town's people. Who are they? The people of the Sabbath. On Saturday, by the sea, on one day of the week they are not to fish. On the other six days they may fish. On one day of the week the sea fills with fish. On that forbidden day when they must not fish. At other times there are no fish at all. Then they resort to legal trickery, and because of the legal trickery they did, Allah Almighty turns their form into apes. Dr. Darwin shouting, I have found that man comes from the ape, shows how much he himself, those (?) envied. Mine, he insists, my ancestor is an ape, he says.

He takes pride in this. My ancestor is an ape, he says. Actually, although saying it this way breaks his own nafs, his own nafs's pride, so long as he doesn't say Allah, so long as Allah does not create, so long as he can say there is no Allah; above his broken lineage, by saying there is no Allah, this grandeur gives him such a pride that, though he does not love that animal, his taking pride in saying I come from that animal, in return for saying there is no Allah, is a (?) it gives him. Such an enemy of Allah is this man.

Ask them about the situation of the people of the town by the sea. When they disrespected the Saturday and transgressed the limits. For on the day of their Saturday rest, the fish would appear and flock to them in shoals. On the day they did not keep the Saturday rest, they would not come. Thus We were testing them because of their going astray. Yes.

Allah Almighty, addressing the Prophet (peace be upon him): ask them, that is, the Children of Israel, about the situation of the people of the town by the sea. They all know them.

In the earlier verses we explained, we had said that Allah Almighty, by repeating, again reminding people of these events, reminding them of the events, does so to invite people to guidance. In this verse too, His reminding people by repeating the people of Saturday, making Allah Almighty's existence over people openly felt, is so that people do not transgress the limits and it settles firmly in their minds. By not observing the prohibition Allah set, by disrespecting the Saturday, they were transgressing the limits, He says.

The holiday of the Children of Israel, the Jews, is Saturday.

The holiday of Muslims is Friday. The holiday of Christians is Sunday.

O man, Muslim! We take Saturday off. We take Sunday off too. We follow their holidays very nicely. But the day of the religion of Islam's own culture, the day of life, that day of respect for Friday, we do not take off.

Do you know why? Made-up words. What's that? On Saturday the Jews are off. Well, they don't work. On Sunday the Christians are off. Well, they don't work. And if we work on Friday, don't work, take it off, three days of the week are gone, four days are left. Made-up words. That's why, they say, by following them on Saturday and Sunday we gain a day. In fact, what hostility to Islam has done, it camouflages to people with such hypocrisy. Camouflage. Yes, over the human created honorable in the worlds, our Lord who created the worlds has a right over that human He created honorable; they usurp it on that day.

Many people cannot come to the mosques; they want to go, they cannot go. Even though sometimes, in some places, (?),

at 11:30, at eleven-something, the Friday time comes in, in some places they keep them waiting until 12. A softening, but people will be questioned about these. Yes. These will be asked about.

From us, a (?).

Their disrespecting Saturday here: Saturday is the day the Jews gathered in synagogues and worshipped Allah together. Christians, on the other hand, on Sundays gathered together in churches and worshipped Allah. With the coming of the religion of Islam, the qibla of all people is the House of Allah; together, once a week, on Fridays, they perform the Friday prayer. Of all people. So Saturday and Sunday are now abolished. No Saturday, no Sunday. Why not? If the three books in the Quran were gathered, and Allah Almighty sent to the worlds the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad (peace be upon him), to all of you, and sent the Quran as the true religion to all people, to the worlds, then you have neither your Saturday nor your Sunday left.

So following made-up things is like dealing with shadows. With shadows. With the sun's going, the shadow too disappears. Your effort comes to nothing. Yes.

So this is these Jews, on Saturday, not going to the synagogues for worship, and, as a test, with the fish flocking in the sea on Saturday, giving up worship and going out fishing. In response to the Saturday fishing ban, they resort to legal trickery. By building a breakwater and trapping the fish inside it, on the other days they plan to fish. So they build a breakwater and finish it. On the other days they start fishing. When this state made them a people transgressing the limits, Allah Almighty's wrath struck them and their forms were changed into apes. So Allah Almighty, addressing the Beloved of the Majestic, Muhammad (peace be upon him), says: remind them of these events.

Thus make known that this was the test of a people gone astray, and that into the (?) their ancestors fell, they must not fall; warn them, He says. Allah Almighty makes it known to people like this, has it announced.

Even their priests among them give them advice. They even come down every few days. What you are doing, they say, is trickery. Allah Almighty, they say, will then give you a (?). And we, they say, will build a barrier between you, they say.

Again, between them and the Jews, that is, those people of Saturday, the rabbis start building a barrier. But every week they come down and give them advice. Some say: these are a people who won't listen. Why, they say, do you come and tell them these things? They say: this is our duty. When Allah Almighty sends them a calamity, we wish that we do not, to those calamities, sir, remain (?) as well. In that case, they say, perhaps Allah will protect us. Just as they finished the breakwater, the rabbis had finished the barriers too. Then, the fish left inside the breakwater, on days other than Saturday, when they began to catch them, Allah Almighty allows three days.

On the third day He turns them into apes. And when their rabbis set out to tell them this, to go down to the city again and tell the truth, they look and see that in the city apes are roaming. Apes. And when they saw their rabbis, tears flowed from their eyes, it is said. Like this. Their eyes full of tears. Three days later they perished.