Surah Yasin Tafseer

The Story of the Dwellers of the Town and Their Messengers, a Lesson that Those Who belied Their Messengers were destroyed

Allah says,

وَاضْرِبْ لَهُم

And put forward to them,

Allah says, `O Muhammad, tell your people who disbelieve in you,'

مَّثَلً أَصْحَابَ الْقَرْيَةِ إِذْ جَاءهَا الْمُرْسَلُونَ

a similitude; the Dwellers of the Town, when there came Messengers to them.

In the reports that he transmitted from Ibn Abbas, Ka`b Al-Ahbar and Wahb bin Munabbih - Ibn Ishaq reported that it was the city of Antioch, in which there was a king called Antiochus the son of Antiochus the son of Antiochus, who used to worship idols. Allah sent to him three Messengers, whose names were Sadiq, Saduq and Shalum, and he disbelieved in them.

It was also narrated from Buraydah bin Al-Husayb, Ikrimah, Qatadah and Az-Zuhri that it was Antioch.

Some of the Imams were not sure that it was Antioch, as we shall see below after telling the rest of the story, if Allah wills