Popular Translations
Muhammad Asad
And ask them about that town which stood by the sea: how its people would profane the Sabbath whenever their fish came to them, breaking the water's surface, on a day on which they ought to have kept Sabbath -because they would not come to them on other than Sabbath-days! Thus did We try them by means of their [own] iniquitous doings
Arthur John Arberry
And question them concerning the township which was bordering the sea, when they transgressed the Sabbath, when their fish came to them on the day of their Sabbath, swimming shorewards, but on the day they kept not Sabbath, they came not unto them. Even so We were trying them for their ungodliness
Yusuf Ali (Saudi Rev. 1985)
Ask them concerning the town standing close by the sea. Behold! they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath. For on the day of their Sabbath their fish did come to them, openly holding up their heads, but on the day they had no Sabbath, they came not: thus did We make a trial of them, for they were given to transgression
Arabic
وَسۡءَلۡهُمۡ عَنِ ٱلۡقَرۡیَةِ ٱلَّتِی كَانَتۡ حَاضِرَةَ ٱلۡبَحۡرِ إِذۡ یَعۡدُونَ فِی ٱلسَّبۡتِ إِذۡ تَأۡتِیهِمۡ حِیتَانُهُمۡ یَوۡمَ سَبۡتِهِمۡ شُرَّعࣰا وَیَوۡمَ لَا یَسۡبِتُونَ لَا تَأۡتِیهِمۡۚ كَذَ ٰلِكَ نَبۡلُوهُم بِمَا كَانُوا۟ یَفۡسُقُونَ ١٦٣
Transliteration (2021)
wasalhum ʿani l-qaryati allatī kānat ḥāḍirata l-baḥri idh yaʿdūna fī l-sabti idh tatīhim ḥītānuhum yawma sabtihim shurraʿan wayawma lā yasbitūna lā tatīhim kadhālika nablūhum bimā kānū yafsuqūn