Attention has recently turned to Mada’in Saleh in Saudi Arabia, after it was opened to tourist traffic. It contains antiquities dating back to the era of the Prophet of God, our Master Saleh, upon him and our Prophet, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him. It was a witness to the story of the destruction of his people that was mentioned in the Holy Qur’an.
Fatwas prohibiting
Previously, Saudi fatwas prohibited and forbade living in and being present in Mada’in Saleh and the places whose people were subjected to torment, based on a hadith of the Prophet, may God bless him and his family and grant them peace, in which it was stated that when the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace and his family, passed by Al-Hijr “Mada’in Saleh” he said: “Do not enter the dwellings of those who wronged themselves lest what befallen them befall you, unless you are weeping.” Then he masked his head and hurried on until he crossed the valley. Among those fatwas was the fatwa issued by the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars during the reign of King Faisal bin Abdulaziz, which stated that it was forbidden to revive and live in areas that contained traces of mountains and plains in Mada’in Saleh, as well as the Thamudic wells, the valley’s course and its bed, and that other than that, which was outside of it and within the vicinity of the existing mountain range, the committee decided by majority that it was permissible to revive and live in it.
What is Madain Saleh?
The people of the Prophet of God, our master Salih, peace and blessings be upon him and our Prophet, and the torment that befell their homes and cities, were mentioned in several places in the Holy Qur’an. In Surat Hud, God Almighty says: (And to Thamud, their brother Salih, he said, “O my people, worship Allah. You have no god other than Him.” He created you from the earth and made you settle therein, so seek His forgiveness and then repent to Him. Indeed, my Lord is near and responds. And indeed, we are in doubt about what you are calling us to. * He said, “O my people, have you seen that if I am upon clear proof from my Lord and He has bestowed upon me mercy from Him, then who will help me from God? If I disobey Him, then what will you add to me?” Without loss * O my people, this is the she-camel of God as a sign for you, so leave her to eat in God’s land, and do not touch her with any harm, lest a near torment overtake you. * So they mutilated her, and he said, “Enjoy yourself in your homes.” Three days. That is a promise that will not be false. * Then when Our command came, We saved Salih and those who believed with him by mercy from Us and from the disgrace of that Day. Indeed, your Lord is the Powerful, the Mighty. [Hud: 61-66]. And it came in Surah Al-Shams: (Thamud denied her tyranny * when the most wretched of them dispersed * and the Messenger of God said to them, “The she-camel of God, and they gave her to drink.” So they denied him, so they hamstrung her, so he growled. Their Lord is against them because of their sin, and He has made amends for it, and they do not fear its consequences. And also in Surah “Al-Hijr” in the Almighty’s saying: (And indeed the Companions of the Stone denied the Messengers. (80) And We gave them Our signs, but they turned away from them. (81) And they used to hew from (82) And the mountains were secure homes (82) Then the cry seized them in the morning (83) But what they were earning did not avail them. (84)). God Almighty had sent His Prophet, our Master Saleh, to his people, “Thamud,” to call them to worship God alone, who has no partner. But they refused, were arrogant, and were stubborn. They asked our Master Saleh to bring them a miracle from God so that they would believe. And to add to the stubbornness, they asked the Prophet of God, Saleh, peace be upon him, to bring out for them from a huge rock – which they identified themselves – a pregnant she-camel – so our Master Saleh made a covenant with them that if the miracle was achieved, they would believe in him. Our Master Saleh prayed to God Almighty and He responded to his supplication, and behold, the rock was moving and from it emerged a she-camel carrying a fetus in her stomach. When his people saw the miracle accomplished, some of them believed, and at their head was the head of the Thamud tribe, whose name was “Janda’ bin Amr,” and so did his followers, but some continued in their disbelief. They harbor evil. The camel kept grazing in their valley and drinking from the well that was there. She would drink one day and leave it for the people to drink from it one day. They would drink the camel’s milk on the day she drank from the well, and it was enough for the whole tribe, big and small. But those who remained in disbelief, who were nine people, agreed to kill the she-camel and her son and keep the water from the well. Our master Saleh warned them of the consequences of that, but they did not listen to him. One of them, called Salif bin Qadar, shot the she-camel with an arrow and it fell to the ground, then they finished it off and mutilated it. When our master Salih saw what they did, he said to them: “Enjoy yourselves in your homes for three days. This is a promise that is not false.” After the three days, the punishment of God descended upon them, and a shout came from heaven and a strong trembling beneath them, so that the earth quaked under their feet: “So they woke up in their homes.” Crouching}, and God Almighty saved our master Saleh and those who believed with him from this torment.
Where is Madain Saleh located?
Mada’in Saleh is located, according to the Saudi General Authority for Tourism and National Heritage, in a wide valley extending from north to south, at Mount Al-Qahr, which is located 130 km northeast of the Jazan region in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was called “Al-Hijr”, but the name was changed to become Mada’in Salih in reference to the people of Thamud, who inhabited the city since the third millennium BC, and then apostatized after their conversion to Islam from the call of the Prophet Salih to them. After them came one of the Arab peoples located in the south, and they are called the Banu Lihyan, then the Banu Nabataeans, who overthrew the Lihyanites, and took Mada’in Salih as houses for their residence, temples for practicing their rituals, and graves for burying their dead, and they were a tribe that resided in the north of the peninsula. Arabic. These cities contain more than 130 tombs, which were built between the first year BC and the year 75 AD, amid huge rocks that stand alone among the wavy sand. Each tomb is dedicated to its owner who built it and to the successive generations of his descendants. Scientific researchers discovered skeletons and bodies wrapped in natural skins that had been preserved inside rooms in rocks that were more than 3,000 years old, and footprints that the researchers believed were traces of dinosaurs, in addition to extremely ingenious drawings and engravings. Al-Mada’in includes a temple called the Diwan, dating back to the era of the Nabataean Empire. It is a room with a rectangular geometric shape located inside a mountain of rocks called “Athlab”, located on the northeastern side of Al-Mada’in. This room was used by the Nabataeans to perform their religious rituals. There is the rock from which it is believed that the she-camel of our master Saleh emerged, and most of the residents believe that the people of Thamud lived in Mount Al-Qahr, and that the she-camel of our master Saleh emerged from a rock in Mount Al-Sharqi and was calved in this same place, where there is a rock with a huge cavity in which they say that the she-camel emerged from the womb of this rock, and next to it is a mark on a rock in the mountain that they say is the exit of the “small camel” faction.
