What if I told you of an amazing city in the middle of the desert, that existed over two thousand years ago? What if I told you that this city had magnificent palaces and manors carved into the rock itself? What if I told you that the people of this city were richer than rich, and were proud of what they’d accomplished? You may think that this place must be some utopia or haven in the middle of the Sahara, right? Some may even think that I just made it all up, just to make people read this, but trust me, this is all true. It may seem like some perfect place, but there are some underlying mistakes that this city has that has to be revealed. 

So read on, and let me take you there. Ready?

We begin at a small oasis. We’ve replenished our food and water, and have fed our camels. We get on them, fix our turbans, and continue on in this journey. It’s noon, and mirages dance wavy jigs on the horizon.

Our destination, this city, is just up ahead. We climb up a big dune of sand and at the bottom, we see the city. The manors and palaces glisten in the sun. we see a caravan of traders enter the city. The guards welcome them and open the gates. They enter, and the gates are shut once again. We could go there. We’ve got lots of merchandise from places all over the world and we could earn a lot of money. But there is a big problem. The people of this city would never accept us. they’re rumoured to not only be proud of their works, but arrogant. They only accept those who are of them. But I’ve got insider information on that city. We’ll set up camp here, and I shall tell you all that I know of that city. The city may seem like the perfect place to live, a land of prosperity, where anyone can get rich, but there are sinister things within those walls, if one were to look carefully. Those people are cultists. Just as they carve their houses out of stone, they carve false deities and gods too, and those gods are just lies. The cultists persecute any person who believes in any other religion other than theirs. The rich hoard all of their wealth, and they never donate anything to help anyone else.  They’re cruel, very cruel. We have to keep our camels tied here. I heard that they killed a strong she-camel just because she drank from the wrong well! That in and of itself should tell you all that you need to know about these people.

Our main intention should be to avoid them at all costs. Let us go now. We have enough provisions to get to the next town, and I am feeling a slight tremor under us. The city I have been talking about, is the city of Thamud. A ruined city which still stands to this day in a place called Al Ula in Saudi Arabia; and it is a cursed city. According to the Qur’an, the Thamudian people were extremely wicked society; and the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) even prohibited muslims from visiting the ruins of that city when they passed that region during the expedition of Tabuk. They worshipped stone idols and were arrogant and had the wrong type of pride of their intelligence. The prophet who came to them to warn them of their ways, and who talked about Islam to them, was Prophet Saleh (Alaihissalam). His miracle was the she-camel who appeared from a boulder. It was a way to prove to the Thamudians that he was a true prophet. Yet they did not believe. Only a few did. One day, two Thamudians killed the camel. Afterwards, Allah decided that their time was up. He sent a massive earthquake to reduce them all to nothing but rubble and ruin, and to destroy their legacy to only a forgotten tale, far away from anyone, in the middle of the Arabian desert. What can we learn from this? We can learn about respect and loyalty, and of its most important variants. Being respectful and loyal to the Lord of All Things and the Creator of the Universe, and being the same to His prophets and religion. There are bounds and limitations in place, inserted by Allah, for our own betterment. We as humans, sometimes do not understand it, or refuse to understand it, and we think that we are indestructible. But we are not; rather, we are far from it. after all, we are just soft flesh and brittle bone. If we follow what our Lord as told us to, we are safe, and we will prosper in every aspect.

We have to understand what Allah has done. He never needed us. he never needed us to pray to him. For that matter, he doesn’t need anything. It is we who need him. So we have to thank him, and we have to be loyal to his religion, and all the prophets that he has sent down. We have to follow in the footsteps of the prophets, and be loyal to them and their teachings. Whatever the time, wherever we may be, Islam has to be our top priority.

Another type of loyalty and respect is that which we give to our community and society. The Thamudians, though they may have been developed in the aspect of economy, they were savages when it came to the aspect of society. They shunned the poor, they divided themselves into two worlds; the world of the rich and the world of the poor. They hated and persecuted the people with different views than their own, and hated to admit their mistakes and be shown the right way. They thought that admitting to their mistakes and someone telling them the right thing, and they being in the wrong and someone else being in the right, would tarnish their dignity, but it was plain arrogance. When a society or a city or even country degrades unto this point, there is very little hope for them to come up once again. This has proved itself time and time again according to the saying ‘history repeats itself’. If we look at the Roman Empire, the emperors were also proud and arrogant of what they’d accomplished, which in turn resulted in continuous defeat by the Muslims, the Persians, the Byzantines, the Turks and much more.

Whatever Islam has told us to do in relation with living in a society, are the globally accepted norms, ethics and rules of communal living. The Thamudians did not do as Saleh (Alaihissalam) told them to do, so they were reduced to nothing but rubble. There will always be people who will rebel against Allah, and it is our duty to warn them, but if they do not listen, then we step aside because Allah will deal with them in the way that he sees fit. This is what Saleh (Alaihissalam) and his followers had to do in the end. Think of people like Fir’aun, the people who disbelieved in Nuh (A.S.)’s message, Abu Jahal, Abu Lahab, and more recent examples like Adolf Hitler; they all thought that they were indestructible, and all of their endings were the same; pure destruction. Some by Allah’s nature like the Thamudians and Fir’aun, and some by their own hands, like Abu Jahal who died in the war that he created, and Hitler, who committed suicide.

In the end, we must be loyal and respectful of our religion, the prophets, our parents, elders, the community, and those who aren’t muslims; for that is how people accept Islam. Let us lead by example, remember the story of the Thamudians and that we must never do what they did, and always stay on the Straight Path. If we do so, then all will be well, and for us there will be in the Afterlife, according to the Qur’an, ‘Gardens under which rivers flow, and they will dwell therein forever’.