Surah Al A'raf Tafseer

Allah said,

فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمُ الطُّوفَانَ وَالْجَرَادَ وَالْقُمَّلَ وَالضَّفَادِعَ وَالدَّمَ ايَاتٍ مُّفَصَّلَتٍ

فَاسْتَكْبَرُواْ وَكَانُواْ قَوْمًا مُّجْرِمِينَ

So We sent on them:the Tuwfan, the locusts, the Qummal, the frogs, and the blood (as a succession of) manifest signs, yet they remained arrogant, and they were of those people who were criminals.

فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمُ الطُّوفَانَ

(So We sent on them the Tufan), Ibn Abbas commented;

"It was a heavy rain that ruined the produce and fruits."

He is also reported to have said that;

Tuwfan refers to mass death.

Mujahid said,

it is water that carries the plague every where. As for the locust, it is the well-known insect, which is permissible to eat.

It is recorded in the Two Sahihs, that Abu Yafur said that he asked Abdullah bin Abi Awfa about locust. He said,

"We participated in seven battles with the Messenger of Allah , and we used to eat locusts."

Ash-Shafi`i, Ahmad bin Hanbal and Ibn Majah recorded from `]Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam that his father narrated from Ibn `]Umar that the Prophet said,

أُحِلَّتْ لَنَا مَيْتَتَانِ وَدَمَانِ

الْحُوتُ وَالْجَرَادُ

وَالْكَبِدُ وَالطِّحَال

We were allowed two dead animals and two (kinds of) blood:

fish and locust, and

kidney and spleen

Ibn Abi Najih narrated from Mujahid about Allah's statement,

فَأَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِمُ الطُّوفَانَ وَالْجَرَادَ

(So We sent on them:the flood, the locusts),

"Eating the nails on their doors and leaving the wood."

As for the Qummal,

Ibn Abbas said that it is the grain bug, or, according to another view; small locusts that do not have wings.

Similar was reported from Mujahid, Ikrimah and Qatadah.

Al-Hasan and Sa`id bin Jubayr said that;

`Qummal' are small black insects.

Abu Jafar bin Jarir recorded that Sa`id bin Jubayr said,

"When Musa came to Fir`awn, he demanded, `Release the Children of Israel to me.' But, Fir`awn did not comply; and Allah sent the Tuwfan, and that is a rain which continued until they feared that it was a form of torment.

They said to Musa, `Invoke your Lord to release us from this rain, and we will believe in you and send the Children of Israel with you.'

Musa invoked his Lord and He removed the affliction from them. However, they did not believe, nor did they send the Children of Israel with him.

In that year, Allah allowed (the earth) to grow various types of produce, fruits and grass for them as never before. They said, `This is what we hoped for.' So Allah sent the locusts, and the locusts started to feed on the grass. When they saw the effect the locusts had on the grass, they knew that no vegetation would be saved from devastation. They said, `O Musa! Invoke your Lord so that He will remove the locusts from us, and we will believe in you and release the Children of Israel to you.'

Musa invoked his Lord, and He removed the locusts. Still, they did not believe and did not send the Children of Israel with him.

They collected grains and kept them in their homes. They said, `We saved our crops.' However, Allah sent the Qummal, grain bugs, and one of them would take ten bags of grains to the mill, but only reap three small bags of grain.

They said, `O Musa! Ask your Lord to remove the Qummal (weevil) from us and we will believe in you and send the Children of Israel with you.'

Musa invoked his Lord, and Allah removed the Qummal from them. However, they did not send the Children of Israel with him.

Once, when he was with Fir`awn, Musa heard the sound of a frog and said to Fir`awn, `What will you and your people suffer from this (the frogs)!'

Fir`awn said, `What can frogs do!'

Yet, by the time that night arrived a person would be sitting in a crowd of frogs that reached up to his chin and could not open his mouth to speak without a frog jumping in it. They said to Musa, `Invoke your Lord to remove these frogs from us, and we will believe in you and send the Children of Israel with you.'

Musa invoked his Lord, but they did not believe.

Allah then sent blood that filled the rivers, wells and the water containers they had. They complained to Fir`awn, saying, `We are inflicted with blood and do not have anything to drink.' He said, `Musa has bewitched you.'

They said, `How could he do that when whenever we look for water in our containers we found that it has turned into blood!'

They came to Musa and said, `Invoke your Lord to save us from this blood, and we will believe in you and send the Children of Israel with you.'

Musa invoked his Lord and the blood stopped, but they did not believe nor send the Children of Israel with him."

A similar account was attributed to Ibn Abbas, As-Suddi, Qatadah and several others among the Salaf.

Muhammad bin Ishaq bin Yasar said,

"The enemy of Allah, Fir`awn, went back defeated and humiliated, after the sorcerers believed (in Musa). He insisted on remaining in disbelief and persisted in wickedness. Allah sent down the signs to him, and he (and his people) were first inflicted by famine. Allah then sent the flood, the locusts, the Qummal, the frogs then blood, as consecutive signs. When Allah sent the flood, it filled the surface of the earth with water. But the water level receded, and they could not make use of it to till the land or do anything else