This verse comes after several very important verses. In verse 62, the criterion of salvation was taken out of ethnic and religious names and returned to faith in The God, the Last Day, and righteous action. In verse 63, covenant, the Book, taking with strength, remembering what is in the Book, and reaching mindful guarding (taqwa) were presented. In verse 64, the Qur'an said that after all that, turning away still occurred, and if the favor and mercy of The God had not been there, the result would have been loss. Now verse 65 recalls a clear example of that same path: those who transgressed in the Sabbath.

The verse begins with “wa-laqad alimtum,” meaning that this event was not unknown to the audience among the Children of Israel. The Qur'an does not say: now We are giving you new information. It says: you yourselves knew and recognized. So this verse is not only a historical report; it is the remembrance of an event known in their collective memory, so that the meaning of covenant, limit, mindful guarding (taqwa), loss, and fall may become clearer.

But the Qur'an again preserves its linguistic justice. It does not say that all the Children of Israel transgressed in the Sabbath. It says: “those who transgressed among you” (alladhina i'tadaw minkum). This “from among you” (minkum) matters. The sin of a specific group is not generalized to every bloodline, generation, and people. The Qur'an names the error precisely, but it does not turn it into ethnic hatred.

At the same time, one point must be seen honestly. In Al-A'raf 7:167, after presenting this same historical atmosphere, the Qur'an speaks about heavy and long-term consequences for their collective body. At first sight, this may seem to create tension with “from among you” (minkum): if the error belonged to a specific group, why do the historical consequences become wider? The answer is that the Qur'an distinguishes between individual moral responsibility and social-historical consequences. Moral sin should not be attributed to every individual of a people; but the corruption of part of a society, if not restrained, can produce consequences that affect the structure and social destiny of that society as well. So “from among you” (minkum) prevents generalizing guilt, but it does not prevent understanding the historical consequences of social corruption.

The word “they transgressed” (i'tadaw) comes from the root AYN D W, meaning to cross the limit, step beyond, and transgress. So the issue was not merely doing a simple act; it was breaking a boundary. In the previous verse, the speech was about loss after receiving the capital of guidance. Here, an example of that same loss is shown: a group that knows the limit but crosses it.

To understand the Sabbath, we must seek help from the Qur'an itself. In An-Nisa 4:154, the Qur'an says that they were told: “do not transgress in the Sabbath” (la ta'du fi al-sabt). In Al-A'raf 7:163, the story becomes clearer: there was a town by the sea; their fish came to them openly on the day of Sabbath, and on days that were not Sabbath, they did not come. The Qur'an says this was a test because of their blatant rupture from obedience (fisq). In An-Nahl 16:124, it also says that the Sabbath was only placed upon those who differed about it, and The God will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection.

So in this context, the Sabbath is not a universal ruling for all human beings. For the Children of Israel, the Sabbath (sabt) was a covenantal limit: a day for stopping, restraint, remembrance, and coming out of the constant rotation of profit, hunting, and daily work. The word Sabbath (sabt) itself is connected with ceasing, cutting off, and stopping. The Qur'an also calls night sleep “resting stoppage” (subat), meaning a stopping that separates the human being from daily work and movement and gives him rest.

From this angle, the Sabbath is not only a calendar day; it is a test of restraining desire. Can the human being, when profit, hunting, trade, or benefit is right in front of his eyes, hold back for the sake of the covenant of The God? Can he preserve the limit, even when crossing the limit appears profitable? Here the Sabbath becomes the field where mindful guarding (taqwa) becomes manifest.

In Al-A'raf 7:163, this very test is expressed through the fish. The fish came openly on the Sabbath day. That means desire and benefit became prominent exactly on the day of the divine limit. This image is very important. Sometimes the human being is tested where he does not see something; but sometimes he is tested exactly where the benefit is visible, near, and tempting. Mindful guarding (taqwa) takes meaning precisely in that moment.

In verse 63, it was said: take what We have given you with strength and remember what is in it, so that you may practice mindful guarding (taqwa). Now verse 65 shows that when the Book is not taken with strength and what is in it is not remembered, the human being falls from mindful guarding (taqwa) into transgression (i'tida). Mindful guarding means protecting the limit; transgression means breaking the limit.

In Al-A'raf, the Qur'an also connects this story with the word blatant rupture from obedience (fisq): “because they used to commit fisq” (bima kanu yafsuqun). Fisq means going out of the limit and sanctuary; splitting the protective covering that keeps the human being on the right path. Just as Iblis went out from the command of his Lord, the human being too, when he goes out from the limit of truth, exits his protective order. In this story, fisq means coming out of the sanctuary of covenant and divine law.

So transgression (i'tida) and blatant rupture from obedience (fisq) are two close images here. Transgression is crossing the limit; fisq is exiting the sanctuary. The Sabbath was the boundary; they recognized the boundary and crossed it. Here the sin is not merely eating or hunting; the sin is that the human being schemes against a limit set to restrain the self and profit, or treats it lightly.

Then the verse reaches its very weighty section: “so We said to them: be apes, humiliated and driven away” (fa-qulna lahum kunu qiradah khasi'in). Whether this transformation was exactly bodily or figurative, The God knows best. The Qur'an brings the wording with severity and clarity, and we should not empty it of force. But the ethical message of the verse is also clear: this scene is an image of falling from the human rank after breaking the covenantal limit.

Here we must also notice a linguistic point. “Be” (kunu) comes from the same root K W N and is verbally near the divine command “Be, and it is” (kun fa-yakun), the command that appears in the Qur'an for something coming into being by the will of The God. But this verbal nearness by itself does not solve the question of whether this verse is bodily or figurative. In the Qur'an, “be” (kunu) does not always mean a new bodily creation; sometimes it means entering a state, position, or quality, as in “be upholders of justice” (kunu qawwamin bil-qist) or “be with the truthful” (kunu ma'a al-sadiqin). So “be apes, humiliated and driven away” (kunu qiradah khasi'in) is unquestionably a severe divine command, but how its realization took place in body, inward condition, social rank, or all these layers together is not made certain by this verbal resemblance alone.

Even if someone understands the outward sense of the verse bodily, the main meaning is still not only a change of body; it is a fall of rank. And if someone understands it figuratively, the severity of the verse is not reduced either, because the Qur'an portrays a human being who, after the Book, covenant, knowledge, and divine limit, has fallen into a condition where he no longer preserves his human dignity.

Here one should not insult the animal. The ape too is a creation of The God and lives in its own place according to its creation and nature. The humiliation in this verse is not because being an animal is inherently evil; it is because a human being who has been given reason, covenant, the Book, choice, and mindful guarding (taqwa), if he abandons these and merely follows desire, imitation, food, play, comfort, and immediate benefit, has fallen from his human station.

In the Qur'an, the human being is not defined only by the body. The human body is connected with the living world and is among the signs of the creation of The God. But human dignity becomes manifest in the capacity for choice, remembrance, responsibility, fulfilling covenant, mindful guarding (taqwa), and righteous action. If this spiritual and ethical layer is taken away from the human being, the human being is reduced only to biological needs: food, water, sleep, comfort, play, pleasure, and preserving benefit.

The Qur'an is not in conflict with true knowledge. Truth does not fight truth. The Qur'an itself invites the human being to look into the heavens, the earth, creation, and his own self, so that he may recognize the signs of The God. Therefore, a biological understanding of the human being, if it comes near truth, does not conflict with the Qur'anic principle. But the Qur'an does not see the human being as only a biological creature. What raises the human being is mindful guarding (taqwa), choice, will, responsibility, and righteous action.

From this angle, the image of apes (qiradah) in the verse warns that a human being can remain human in outward form while falling in existential direction. When the human being surrenders only to immediate desires, profit, collective imitation, scheming, and fleeing from responsibility, he loses what should have made him a committed and mindful human being.

The second word is also very important: “humiliated and driven away” (khasi'in). The Qur'an does not only say apes; it says apes, humiliated and driven away. The root KH S A is connected with being driven away, pushed back, distanced with humiliation and disgrace. The same root appears in Al-Mu'minun 23:108 in the address to the people of Hell: “remain in it, driven away and humiliated, and do not speak to Me” (ikhsa'u fiha wa-la tukallimun). This shows that KH S A in the Qur'an is not an ordinary description; it is a word for expulsion, humiliation, and the cutting of rank after the proof has arrived and the path of denial has closed.

Here we must distinguish between the losers (khasirin) of verse 64 and the humiliated and driven away (khasi'in) of verse 65. In the previous verse, the speech was about loss: losing capital. In this verse, the speech is about being driven away and humiliated. The link between the two is precise: when the human being wastes the capital of guidance through turning away and transgression, the result can move from loss to expulsion with humiliation; from being among the losers to being driven away from the rank of dignity.

In the Qur'an, the word apes (qiradah) appears in several places within this same atmosphere of fall, curse, and breaking the limit. In Al-Baqarah 2:65 and Al-A'raf 7:166, its connection with the people of the Sabbath is clear. In Al-Ma'idah 5:60, it appears alongside swine and worshiping false authority (taghut). This also shows that the subject is not only an animal body; the Qur'an speaks about the fall of traits, direction, servitude, and dignity. When apes appear beside the worship of false authority (taghut), it becomes clear that the discussion is not merely biology; it is spiritual and ethical decline.

So this verse should not be limited to curiosity about the mechanics of transformation. The more important question is: what pulls the human being from dignity into humiliation? The answer of the verse is clear: knowing the limit, then breaking the limit; having covenant, then crossing it; receiving the Book, then not taking it with strength; seeing benefit, then forgetting mindful guarding (taqwa).

The story of the Sabbath is not only about the past. Every society may have its own Sabbath: a limit that must be preserved against profit, desire, market, power, lust, comfort, or collective imitation. If that limit is broken, if the human being builds tricks to get around the command of The God, if mindful guarding (taqwa) is sacrificed for immediate benefit, the fall follows the same path, even if the names have changed.

So the lesson of the verse is this: the Sabbath was a test of stopping before desire. Transgression was the breaking of that same stopping. And apes (qiradah), humiliated and driven away (khasi'in), is the image of a human being who, after covenant, the Book, knowledge, and the divine limit, falls from the rank of responsibility to the level of instinct, imitation, and humiliation. The God knows best how that transformation occurred; but the message of the verse is clear: the human being who knows the limit of The God and still breaks it moves away from the dignity of mindful guarding (taqwa).

• Al-Baqarah 2:63— The command to take what was given with strength and remember what is in it; verse 65 shows an example of this path failing in the transgression of the Sabbath.
• Al-Baqarah 2:64— Turning away after covenant and the danger of loss; verse 65 gives a concrete example of transgression after covenant.
• Al-Baqarah 2:66— The result of the Sabbath event as a deterrent lesson and admonition for those before, those after, and the people of mindful guarding (taqwa).
• An-Nisa 4:47— The remembrance of the curse of the people of the Sabbath; important for understanding the place of this event in the Qur'anic memory of the People of the Book.
• An-Nisa 4:154— The command “do not transgress in the Sabbath” beside the solemn covenant; showing that the Sabbath was a covenantal limit.
• Al-Ma'idah 5:60— The mention of apes beside swine and worshiping false authority (taghut); useful for understanding ethical and spiritual fall, not only biological form.
• Al-A'raf 7:163— The detailed story of the people of the Sabbath in the town by the sea and the fish coming on Sabbath day; the key verse for understanding the Sabbath test.
• Al-A'raf 7:164— The internal conversation of the society about admonishing the wrongdoing group; showing that the whole society was not at one level.
• Al-A'raf 7:165— The rescue of those who forbade evil and the seizure of the wrongdoers with punishment; a witness to moral distinction within the society.
• Al-A'raf 7:166— The repeated command “be apes, humiliated and driven away” after they became insolent toward what they had been forbidden.
• Al-A'raf 7:167— Heavy historical and social consequences after this path; important for distinguishing between the guilt of a specific group and wider social effects.
• An-Nahl 16:40— “Be, and it is”; useful for carefully comparing the formative command and the expression “be” in verse 65, without making the mechanics of transformation certain.
• An-Nahl 16:124— The Sabbath was only appointed for those who differed about it; showing that the Sabbath was not a universal ruling for all human beings.
• Al-Furqan 25:47— Sleep as resting stoppage (subat); useful for understanding the link of the root S B T with stopping, ceasing, and resting.
• An-Naba 78:9— “And We made your sleep a resting stoppage (subat)”; another Qur'anic witness for the meaning of stopping and rest in the root S B T.
• Al-Kahf 18:50— The blatant rupture from obedience (fisq) of Iblis from the command of his Lord; useful for understanding fisq as exiting the sanctuary of divine command.
• Al-Mu'minun 23:108— “Remain in it, driven away and humiliated, and do not speak to Me”; a direct Qur'anic witness for the root KH S A as expulsion and humiliation after proof has arrived.
• An-Nisa 4:135— “Be upholders of justice”; an example of “be” meaning entering an ethical state and position, not bodily creation.
• At-Tawbah 9:119— “Be with the truthful”; another example of “be” in the meaning of taking a direction and ethical companionship.
• Al-'Asr 103:1-3— The human being is in loss except through faith, righteous action, counsel to truth, and counsel to patience; important for connecting loss, action, and taqwa.