Ahqaf
Aḥqāf (Arabic: أحْقاف) was the land where the Prophet Hud (a) and the People of Ad lived. There is a sura in the Qur'an named after this land. In the Qur'an, the land is considered as green and flourishing, although it turned into a desert after a divine punishment of the People of Ad. There is a disagreement over the current location of Ahqaf. It is believed by Allama Tabataba'i to be located in southern parts of the Arabian Peninsula.
Introduction
The land of Ahqaf, after which Sura al-Ahqaf (Qur'an 46) is named, was the place where People of Ad lived prosperously, but they suffered a divine punishment after refusing to obey the Prophet Hud (a).[1]
"Ahqaf" is a plural form of "hiqf" (حِقْف), which means a "sand hill". However, "hiqf" is believed by some people to refer to a huge twisted mass of sands.[2]
According to the Qur'an, Ahqaf was green and flourishing before the divine punishment of the People of Ad.[3] In Qur'an 89, the civilization of the People of Ad is said to be unprecedented.[4]
Current Location
According to 'Allama Tabataba'i, Ahqaf is definitely located in southern parts of Arabian Peninsula which no remnants of the land have survived today.[5] However, there is a disagreement over the exact location of Ahqaf.[6] It is believed by some people to be located in a desert between Oman and al-Mahra in Yemen. Others take it to be a sabulous desert adjacent to the sea in Ash-Shihr in Yemen. In some other sources, it is taken to be located in sabulous lands between Oman and Hadhramaut.[7]
Medieval Muslim geographers believed that Ahqaf was a sabulous land in "al-Ramla" or "Rub' al-Khali" (the Empty Quarter). However, contemporary European geographers take it to include the whole al-Ramla or its western part.[8] Since the land is hot and dry, geographers refer to it as the "Empty Quarter" since no one lives there.[9] According to Bi-Azar Shirazi, Bedouins in southern parts of Saudi Arabia refer to a mountainous area extending from western coasts of Dhofar to Eden (the center of which is Hadhramaut) as "al-Ahqaf".[10] A grave is said to be located in Ahqaf, which is attributed to Prophet Hud (a).[11]
See Also
Notes
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 18, p. 210.
- ↑ Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, vol. 9, p. 135-136.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Tārīkh al-anbīyāʾ, p. 86.
- ↑ Have you not regarded how your Lord dealt with [the people of] Ad, (6) [and] Iram, [the city] of the pillars, (7) the like of which was not created among cities (8)
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 18, p. 210.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 18, p. 210.
- ↑ Ṭabāṭabāʾī, al-Mīzān, vol. 18, p. 210; Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān, vol. 9, p. 135-136.
- ↑ Bīāzār Shīrāzī, Bāstānshināsī wa jughrāfīyā-yi tārīkhī-yi qiṣaṣ-i Qurʾān, p. 307.
- ↑ Bīāzār Shīrāzī, Bāstānshināsī wa jughrāfīyā-yi tārīkhī-yi qiṣaṣ-i Qurʾān, p. 309.
- ↑ Bīāzār Shīrāzī, Bāstānshināsī wa jughrāfīyā-yi tārīkhī-yi qiṣaṣ-i Qurʾān, p. 308.
- ↑ Bīāzār Shīrāzī, Bāstānshināsī wa jughrāfīyā-yi tārīkhī-yi qiṣaṣ-i Qurʾān, p. 307; Najjār, Qiṣaṣ al-anbīyāʾ, p. 54.
References
- Bīāzār Shīrāzī, ʿAbd al-Karīm. Bāstānshināsī wa jughrāfīyā-yi tārīkhī-yi qiṣaṣ-i Qurʾān. Tehran: Daftar-i Nashr-i Farhang, 1380 Sh.
- Ibn Kathīr al-Dimashqī, Ismāʿīl b. ʿUmar. Qiṣaṣ al-anbīyāʾ. Edited by Muṣtafā ʿAbd al-Waḥidī. Beirut: Muʾassisa ʿUlūm al-Qurʾān, 1411 AH.
- Najjār, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-. Qiṣaṣ al-anbīyāʾ. 9th edition. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 1406 AH.
- Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Mūhammad Ḥusayn al-. Al-Mīzān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 1390 AH.
- Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-. Tārīkh al-anbīyāʾ. Edited by Qāsim Hāshimī. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Aʿlamī li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 1423 AH.
- Ṭabrisī, Faḍl b. al-Ḥasan al-. Majmaʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān. Tehran: Naṣir Khusruw, 1372 Sh.