I heard 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn Aslam regarding His saying: "And ask them about the town that was by the sea, when they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath, when their fish came to them openly on their Sabbath day, and the day they had no Sabbath, they did not come to them"—the verse—he said: It is a town called Miqna, between Madyan and 'Aynuni.

His saying, the Almighty: "When they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath"

8444 - My father told us, al-Hasan ibn al-Rabi' told us, 'Abd Allah ibn Idris told us, Muhammad ibn Ishaq told us, Dawud ibn al-Husayn narrated to me, from 'Ikrimah, from Ibn 'Abbas, regarding the saying of Allah: "And ask them about the town that was by the sea, when they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath"—he said: Ibn 'Abbas said: They innovated the Sabbath, so they were tested by it, and the fish were forbidden to them.

His saying, the Almighty: "When their fish came to them"

8445 - And by the same chain, from Ibn 'Abbas, regarding the saying of Allah: "When their fish came to them on their Sabbath day, appearing"—they were such that when the day of the Sabbath came, the fish would appear to them; they would look at them in the sea, and when the Sabbath ended, they would depart and not be seen until the same time of the coming Sabbath, and when the Sabbath arrived, they would return appearing.

8446 - Muhammad ibn Sa'id al-'Awfi informed us in what he wrote to me, my father told me, my paternal uncle al-Husayn told me, from his father, from his grandfather, from 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abbas: "When their fish came to them on their Sabbath day, appearing, and the day they had no Sabbath, they did not come to them." This is because the people of the town that was by the sea, their fish would come to them on their Sabbath day—meaning on the day they observed the Sabbath, they would come to them appearing—meaning from every place—and the day they did not observe the Sabbath, they would not come to them.

8447 - Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Uthman al-Dimashqi mentioned it, Muhammad ibn Shu'ayb ibn Shabur told us, 'Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak informed me that he heard Abu Bakr al-Hudhali and 'Abd al-Malik ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz ibn Jurayj al-Makki narrating from 'Ikrimah, the freed slave of Ibn 'Abbas, who said: I entered upon 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abbas, may Allah be pleased with both of them, before his eyesight was gone, and the Mushaf was before him; he was reciting and weeping. He said to me: Do you know Ayla? I said: Yes. He said: There was a tribe of Jews there, and the fish would hasten to them on the Sabbath day, then dive, so they could not reach them afterward except by diving for them with great hardship and labor. They used to come to them on the Sabbath day, white and fat as if they were pregnant, their backs bumping against their bellies.