Salih

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Arab prophet in Islam

title: "Salih" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["arab-prophets", "prophets-of-the-quran", "miracle-workers"] description: "Arab prophet in Islam" topic_path: "general/arab-prophets" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salih" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Arab prophet in Islam ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox religious biography"]

Field	Value
religion	Islam
honorific_prefix	Prophet
name	Ṣāliḥ
image	Saleh leads she-camel crop.jpg
honorific_suffix	﵇
native_name	صَالِحٌ
Selah
native name lang	ar
caption	Salih leads the she-camel of God from the side of a mountain.
resting_place	Hasik (present day Oman)
office1	Prophet of Islam
predecessor1	Hud
successor1	Abraham
relatives	Thamud
::

::callout[type=note] the Islamic prophet ::

Salih or Saleh () is a prophet mentioned in the Qur'an who prophesied to the tribe of Thamud in ancient Arabia, before the lifetime of Muhammad. The story of Salih is linked to that of the she-camel of God, a gift from God to the people of Thamud when they sought a miracle to confirm that Salih was a prophet.

Historical context

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Mada'in_Saleh_Al-Hijr_Hegra_(مدائن_صالح)_(8136618664).jpg" caption="''Mada'in Saleh'' or ''Al-Hijr'']] in the [[Hejaz Mountains]] of [[Saudi Arabia"] ::

The Thamud were a tribal confederation in the northwestern region of the Arabian Peninsula mentioned in Akkadian literature during the reign of Sargon II of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The tribe's name continues to appear in documents into the fourth century, but by the sixth century, they were regarded as a group that had vanished long ago.

According to the Quran, the city that Saleh was sent to was called al-Ḥijr (), which corresponds to the Nabataean city of Hegra. The city rose to prominence around the 1st century as an important site in the regional caravan trade. Adjacent to the city were large, decorated rock-cut tombs used by members of various religious groups. At an unknown point in ancient times, the site was abandoned and possibly functionally replaced by Al-'Ula. The site has been referred to as Mada'in Salih () since the era of Muhammad and was named after his predecessor, Salih.

Saleh is not mentioned in any historical texts or in any of the Abrahamic scriptures that precede the Qur'an, but the account of Thamud's destruction may have been well known in ancient Arabia. The tribe's name is used in ancient Arabian poetry as a metaphor for "the transience of all things".

In Islam

Qur'an

According to Muslim tradition, the people of Thamud relied on Saleh for support. He was chosen by God as a prophet and sent to preach against the selfishness of the wealthy and to condemn the practice of shirk (polytheism). Although Saleh preached for a sustained period, the people of Thamud refused to heed his warning and instead asked him to perform a miracle for them. They said: “O Ṣāliḥ! We truly had high hopes in you before this. How dare you forbid us to worship what our forefathers had worshipped? We are certainly in alarming doubt about what you are inviting us to.”

Saleh reminded his people of the castles and palaces they built out of stone, and of their technological superiority over neighbouring communities. Furthermore, he told them about their ancestors, the ʿĀd, and how they too were destroyed for their sins. Some of the people of Thamud believed Saleh's words, but the tribal leaders refused to listen to him and continued to demand that he demonstrate a miracle to prove his prophethood.

In response, God gave the Thamud a blessed she-camel () as both a means of sustenance and a test. The tribe was told to allow the camel to graze peacefully and avoid harming her. In defiance of Saleh's warning, the people of the tribe hamstrung the camel. Saleh informed them that they had only three more days to live before the wrath of God descended upon them. The people of the city were remorseful, but their crime could not be undone, and all the disbelieving people in the city were killed in an earthquake. Al-Hijr was rendered uninhabitable and remained in ruins thereafter. Saleh himself and the few believers who followed him survived.

The story is expanded upon in the surah an-Naml. Whilst the she-camel is not mentioned explicitly in this chapter, it states that nine men plotted to kill Salih and his whole family, a crime for which they were struck down by God three days later.

Muslim tradition

| image1 = Salih leads She-camel uncropped.jpg | caption1 = Salih inviting his people to see the She-Camel from a Persian 1577 manuscript | total_width = 300 | caption2 = Same scene from a different 1577 manuscript | image2 = Berlin, Pertsch Persisch 1016 fol 28r Saleh presents the She-Camel.jpg | align = left

Muslim writers have elaborated upon the story of Saleh and the she-camel. Early Islamic tradition often involved a motif of the camel miraculously emerging from stone, often accompanied by a calf, and the production of milk from the camel. Al-Tabari states that Saleh summoned his people to a mountain, where they witnessed the rock miraculously split open, revealing the camel. The she-camel had a young calf. Saleh informed the Thamud that the older camel was to drink from their water source on one day, and they were to drink from it the next day. On days when they were not allowed to drink water, the camel provided them with milk. But God informed Saleh that a boy who would hamstring the camel would soon be born to the tribe, and that child was evil and grew unnaturally fast. The camel was indeed killed, and its calf cried out three times, signaling that the Thamud would be destroyed in three days. Their faces turned yellow, then red, then black, and they died on the third day as predicted.

According to some Islamic scholars, the mother of Ismail, Hajar, was a granddaughter of Saleh.

A similar tradition is related in an eighth-century commentary on Islam by John of Damascus and is also mentioned in the works of Ibn Kathir.

In the Baháʼí Faith

The founder of the Baháʼí Faith, Bahá'u'lláh, briefly mentioned the story of the hamstrung she-camel in the Lawh-i-Burhán, and commented also upon Saleh's ministry in the Kitáb-i-Íqán. 'Abdu'l-Bahá states that the she-camel symbolizes the holy spirit of Saleh and the camel's milk refers to the spiritual food that he offered to his people.

In the Kitáb-i-Íqán, Saleh is referred to as "the holy person of Sálih, Who again summoned the people to the river of everlasting life." Like other Prophets of God, the people of the time turned away from Him: "His admonitions, however, yielded no fruit, and His pleading proved of no avail....All this, although that eternal Beauty was summoning the people to no other than the city of God."

References

"Lawḥ-i-Burhán (Tablet of the Proof)". Baháʼí Reference Library.
"Kitáb-i-Íqán (The Book of Certitude)".
{{qref. 7. 73-79
{{qref. 11. 61-69
{{qref. 26. 141-158
{{qref. 15. 80-84
(2009). "The Making of Islamic Heritage: Muslim Pasts and Heritage Presents". Springer.
(2003). "Roman Petra (A.D. 106–363): A Neglected Subject". Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins.
(2001). "Arabia and the Arabs". [[Routledge]].
"Ancient Hegra, a Nabataean Site in a Semi-arid Environment. The Urban Space and Preliminary Results from the First Excavation Season". Bollettino di Archeologia.
Hizon, Danny. "Madain Saleh: Arabia's Hidden Treasure – Saudi Arabia".
{{qref. 11. 62
{{qref. 7. 74
{{qref. 7. 75
{{qref. 7. 73
{{qref. 7. 77
{{qref. 11. 65
{{qref. 26. 157
{{qref. 7. 78
{{qref. 7. 79
{{qref. 27. 48
{{qref. 27. 49
al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Yarir. "The History of al-Tabari, Volume 2".
Fatani, Afnan H.. (2006). "The Qur'an: an encyclopedia". Routeledge.
Hoyland, Robert. (1997). "Seeing Islam As Others Saw It A Survey And Evaluation Of Christian Jewish And Zoroastrian Writings On Early Islam". Darwin Press.
(1958). "The Fathers Of The Church: A New Translation, Vol 37". Catholic University of America Press.
Ibn Kathir. "Stories of the Prophets". Darussalam.
Dunbar, Hooper C.. (1998). "A Companion to the Study of the Kitáb-i-Íqán". George Ronald.
Taherzadeh, Adib. (1987). "The Revelation of Baháʼu'lláh, Volume 4: Mazra'ih & Bahji 1877-92". George Ronald.

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