157 Preface فَعَقَروها فَأَصبَحوا نادِمينَYusuf AliBut they ham-strung her: then did they become full of regrets.1Their regrets were too late. They had themselves asked for a Sign. The Sign had been given them in the she-camel, which their prophet Ṣālih had put forward as a test case. Would they, through that symbol, respect the law of equity by which all people had rights in water and in the gifts of nature? They refused to respect that law, and committed sacrilege by deliberately killing the she-camel. They themselves came to an evil end.