11.Surah Hud

The Quranic Text & Ali’s Version:

وَلَقَدْ جَاءتْ رُسُلُنَا إِبْرَاهِيمَ بِالْبُـشْرَى...   

11: 69.   There came Our Messengers to Abraham with glad tidings.

...قَالُواْ سَلاَمًا...

They said, "Peace!"

...قَالَ سَلاَمٌ... ...

He answered, "Peace!"

...فَمَا لَبِثَ أَن جَاء بِعِجْلٍ حَنِيذٍ ﴿٦٩﴾

and hastened to entertain them with a roasted calf.

C1565. According to the sequence of Surah 7, the next reference should be to the story of Lut, and that story commences at 11:77 below, but it is introduced by a brief reference to an episode in the life of his uncle Abraham, from whose seed sprang the peoples to whom Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad Al-Mustafa were sent with the major Revelations.

Abraham had by this time passed through the fire of persecutions in the Mesopotamian valleys: he had left behind him the ancestral idolatry of Ur of the Chaldees; he had been tried and he had triumphed over the persecution of Nimrud: he had now taken up his residence in Canaan, from which his nephew Lot (Lut) was called to preach to the wicked Cities of the Plain east of the Dead sea which is itself called Bahr Lut.

Thus prepared and sanctified, he was now ready to receive the Message that he was chosen to be the progenitor of a great line of Prophets, and that Message is now referred to.

Can we localize Nimrud?

If local tradition in place-names can be relied upon, this king must have ruled over the tract which includes the modern Nimrud, on the Tigris, about twenty miles south of Mosul. This is the site of Assyrian ruins of great interest, but the rise of Assyria as an Empire was of course much later than the time of Abraham. The Assyrian city was called Kalakh (or Calah), and archaeological excavations carried out there have yielded valuable results, which are however irrelevant for our Commentary.

Other versions:

11: 69 [Hud, Mecca 52]

Asad …..bearing a glad tiding [note 99].

Yusuf Ali There came Our Messengers to Abraham with glad tidings. They said "Peace!" He answered "Peace!" and hastened to entertain them with a roasted calf.

Pickthall And Our messengers came unto Abraham with good news. They said: Peace! He answered: Peace! and delayed not to bring a roasted calf.

Transliteration Wa laqad ja_'at rusuluna_ ibra_hima bil busyra_ qa_lu_ sala_ma_(n), qa_la sala_mun fama_ labisa an ja_'a bi 'ijlin haniz(in).

[[ Asad’s note 99 – The Quran does not state in so many words that these guests of Abraham were angels; but since the term ‘rusuluna (“Our Messengers”) is often used in the sense of heavenly messengers, all the classical commentators interpret it thus in the above context. …………………]]