65 Preface وَلَقَد عَلِمتُمُ الَّذينَ اعتَدَوا مِنكُم فِي السَّبتِ فَقُلنا لَهُم كونوا قِرَدَةً خاسِئينَYusuf AliAnd well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: “Be ye apes, despised and rejected1.” The punishment for breach of the Sabbath under the Mosaic law was death. “Every one that defileth it (the Sabbath) shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people”: (Exod, 31:14). There must have been a Jewish tradition about a whole fishing community in a seaside town, which persisted in breaking the Sabbath and were turned into apes: (Cf. 7:163-166). Or should we translate in both these passages. “Be as apes”, instead of “Be apes”? This is the suggestion of Maulvi Muḥammad ‘Ali on this passage, on the authority of Mujahid and Ibn Jarir Tabari. The punishment would be, not for the breach of Sabbath in itself, but for their contumacious defiance of the Law.