Allah the Most High has said: ‘Before them the people
of Nûh and those who dwelt at Rass have accused the
messengers of Allah of falsehood.’*
Some historians have
asserted that by these the inhabitants of Madian are meant,
for whose guidance Shoa’ib had been sent, and that Rass is
the name of the well from which their cattle were drinking.
Others state that the people of Rass dwelt in one of the
regions of Syria, to whom the Almighty—w. n. b. pr.—
had sent a prophet, but that those malefactors slew him,
and threw his body into a well. Some commentators
believe that these people dwelt in the country of Yamama,
and became rebellious; wherefore God, whose name be
blessed and exalted, sent them a prophet of the name
of Hantala; but according to another tradition he is called
Yasin. They accused him of falsehood, imprisoned him
in a well, placed a large stone over it, and left him to
perish of starvation. A black slave, however, who had
believed his words, gathered some fruit and sold it. With
the price of this fruit he daily purchased eatables, which
he let down into the well through a chink. This he continued
for two years, until the mighty Avenger annihilated
those evil-doers, and ordered an angel to remove the stone,
and to take out the prophet, to whom the Almighty sent
the revelation that the black man who had every day provided
him with food would be his companion in the garden
of paradise.