What they did to the She-Camel

 Trying to understand what the Thamud did to the she-camel

The Thamud were given a she-camel as a sign from Allah, and were clearly warned against harming her, lest they incur an immediate punishment. 

As can be seen from the table below, across The Quran, we find five mentions of what they did to the she-camel. It is generally translated as ‘hamstrung’. Some translations do have words like: ‘slaughtered’, ‘killed’, ‘crippled’, ‘mistreated’, ‘wounded’, ‘slew’, ‘butchered’, ‘disabled’ as can be seen at https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/11/65/. However, these words have different words in Arabic. 

The root of the wordعَقَرُو is also used in three other places in The Quran, by Zakaria, to describe the condition of his ‘woman’ عَاقِرًا , which is why she cannot bear a child (see table below).  We find this word mostly translated as ‘barren’, and in some translations as ‘sterile’, ‘infertile’, ‘childless’, as can be checked at: https://www.islamawakened.com/quran/19/5/default.htm 

However, the word عَقِيمٌ is used in The Quran to describe another condition, also generally translated as barren. See https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=Eqm#(22:55:16) 

The Quran places great emphasis on Guarding the Womb. 

The following is copied from: https://corpus.quran.com/qurandictionary.jsp?q=Eqr#(11:65:1) 

The triliteral root ʿayn qāf rā (ع ق ر) occurs eight times in the Quran, in two derived forms:

• five times as the form I verb ʿaqara (عَقَرَ)
• three times as the active participle ʿāqir (عَاقِر)

… 

Verb (form I) - to hamstrung

(7:77:1) faʿaqarū	Then they hamstrung	فَعَقَرُوا النَّاقَةَ وَعَتَوْا عَنْ أَمْرِ رَبِّهِمْ
(11:65:1) faʿaqarūhā	But they hamstrung her	فَعَقَرُوهَا فَقَالَ تَمَتَّعُوا فِي دَارِكُمْ ثَلَاثَةَ أَيَّامٍ
(26:157:1) faʿaqarūhā	But they hamstrung her	فَعَقَرُوهَا فَأَصْبَحُوا نَادِمِينَ
(54:29:4) faʿaqara	and hamstrung	فَنَادَوْا صَاحِبَهُمْ فَتَعَاطَىٰ فَعَقَرَ
(91:14:2) faʿaqarūhā	and they hamstrung her	فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَعَقَرُوهَا فَدَمْدَمَ عَلَيْهِمْ رَبُّهُمْ بِذَنْبِهِمْ فَسَوَّاهَا

Active participle

(3:40:11) ʿāqirun	(is) [a] barren	قَالَ رَبِّ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لِي غُلَامٌ وَقَدْ بَلَغَنِيَ الْكِبَرُ وَامْرَأَتِي عَاقِرٌ
(19:5:8) ʿāqiran	barren	وَإِنِّي خِفْتُ الْمَوَالِيَ مِنْ وَرَائِي وَكَانَتِ امْرَأَتِي عَاقِرًا
(19:8:9) ʿāqiran	barren	قَالَ رَبِّ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لِي غُلَامٌ وَكَانَتِ امْرَأَتِي عَاقِرًا