Tafsir of Surah Hood - Verse 84

The Story of the People of Madyan and the Call of Shu`ayb

Allah, the Exalted, says, `We sent a Messenger to the people of Madyan.' They were a tribe of Arabs who lived between the land of the Al-Hijaz and Ash-Sham, close to the land of Ma`an. Their land was known by the name of their tribe and was thus, called Madyan. Allah sent unto them the Prophet Shu`ayb and he was of the noblest of them in lineage. For this reason, Allah said,

أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا

(their brother Shu`ayb.) Shu`ayb commanded them to worship Allah alone without associating any partners with him. He also prohibited them from cheating in their weights and measures (for business transactions).

إِنِّى أَرَاكُمْ بِخَيْرٍ

(I see you in prosperity) meaning, `in your livelihood and your provisions. And verily, I fear that you will be deprived of this bounty that you are enjoying by violating Allah's prohibitions.'

وَإِنِّى أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ مُّحِيطٍ

(and verily, I fear for you the torment of a Day encompassing.) This means the abode of the Hereafter.

Commentary

An account of Sayyidna Shu'aib and his people appears in the verses cited above. Besides being kafirs and mushriks, his people used to give less in weights and measures. Sayyidna Shu'aib (علیہ السلام) carried his call to them, told them not to give less in weights and measures, and warned them of Divine punishment if they persisted with this way of life. But, they did persist with their denial and contumacy and, as a consequence, all those people were destroyed through a severe punishment, details of which appear as follows.

In the first verse (84), it was said: وَإِلَىٰ مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا (And to Madyan [ We sent ] their brother, Shu'aib Madyan was actually the name of a town settled by Madyan ibn Ibrahim. Its present location has been given as ` Ma` an' in Jordan. The people of this town are also called Madyan. Therefore, by calling Sayyidna Shu'aib (علیہ السلام) ` brother of Madyan,' it was hinted that Allah Ta` ala sent His messenger to those people from among them so that they feel familiar and find it easier to accept his teachings.

Then, it was said:

قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّـهَ مَا لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَـٰهٍ غَيْرُ‌هُ ۖ وَلَا تَنقُصُوا الْمِكْيَالَ وَالْمِيزَانَ

0 my people, worship Allah. You have no god other than Him.

And do not lessen the measure and the weight.

Here, Sayyidna Shu'aib (علیہ السلام) has invited his people to believe in the Oneness of Allah (Tauhid) because they were Mushriks, those who associated partners in the divinity of Allah. They worshipped trees. That has been pointed to through the use of the word: الایکہ (al-'aikah: trees) in the Holy Qur'an and it is in this respect that the people of Madyan have also been given the sobriquet of اَصحَاب الاَیکہ (ashabu al--aikah: the people of aikah - 15:78, 26:176, 38:13, 50:14). Along with this kufr and shirk, they were also involved in the grave sin of cheating in commercial transactions when they would weigh short and give less in measure and thus deprive people of what was to come to them as their right. Sayyidna Shu'aib (علیہ السلام) told them not to do that.

Special Note

Here, it is useful to keep in mind that kufr and shirk are the roots of all sins. People soaked in these are usually the first to be invited to believe. Faith comes before consideration could be given to matters like social transactions and individual deeds. Whether they have deliverance in the present world or would deserve punishment are things that too are decided on the basis of this faith or denial. All events related to past prophets and their peoples mentioned in the Qur'an bear witness to this mode of action - with the exception of two communities. Punishment came upon them because of their disbelief as well as due to their evil deeds. The people of Sayyidna Lut (علیہ السلام) were one of them upon whom, as mentioned earlier, their entire habitation was overturned. It has been stated that their evil practice was the reason for it. The people of Sayyidna Shu'aib (علیہ السلام) were the other one. They were punished because of their kufr and shirk as well as because of their habit of weighing less and measuring short.

This tells us that both these things are most hated and grave, more than any other sin. Obviously, the reason is that they bring serious loss upon the entire human race leaving the world populated by it in a disorder of ominous proportions.

Turning to the verses cited above, we see that Sayyidna Shu'aib (علیہ السلام) has used his prophetic compassion to make his people stop their evil practice of giving short measure and less weight. The words he has used to say that are eloquent: إِنِّي أَرَ‌اكُم بِخَيْرٍ‌ وَإِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ مُّحِيطٍ (I see you quite well off, and I fear for you the punishment of an encircling day - 84). It means that Sayyidna Shu'aib (علیہ السلام) found them living comfortably. There were not poor, hungry and financially straitened which could be one of the reasons why they had to take recourse to such a cursed practice. Now that they were already blessed by Allah Ta` ala, it required that they should not subject His creation to injustice. Not leaving it at that, they were also told that, in the event they did not listen to their prophet and did not stop this evil practice, he apprehended that Divine punishment might encircle them. This punishment could mean the punishment of the Hereafter, and the punishment of the present world too. Then, the punishments due to come in this world may be of different kinds. The lowest punishment could be that they might lose the prosperity they had, or they may fall victims to famines and price hikes, as said by the Holy Prophet ﷺ `

When a people start lessening weights and measures, Allah Ta` ala makes them suffer from the punishment of famine and price hikes.'

The Midian (Madyan) region, to which the Prophet Shu‘ayb was sent, lay between Hijaz and Syria. His addressing his community as ‘people of faith’ shows that they claimed to be believers. In other words, it was a Muslim community of that time; they were the ummah of the prophet who preceded Shu‘ayb; but now after a long passage of time, in their later generations there had been a decline in their piety. Shu‘ayb told them that, if they were to be taken as people of the Faith, their claim would be acceptable before God only if they fulfilled the requirements of their claim, failing which, their claim had no value. He said that their faith demanded that they worship the one and only God, adhere to justice and fair play in their transactions and choose for others what they desired for themselves. Every one of them had to discharge his obligations fully to others and there should be no shortcoming in this. They should live on the earth as God wanted His subjects to live, remaining contented with their legitimately gained earnings and not try to gain more through disobedience. If they did all this, they would be treated as believers in the eyes of God. Otherwise, there was the likelihood of their being smitten by God’s punishment. Shu‘ayb also advised them not to give short measure, or engage in any other kind of fraudulent practices. His reference to their prosperity shows that in his community, some were poor and some were rich; there were some who received more, while others received less. Had all his addressees received less, then who would have been the prosperous ones? This shows that the addressees mentioned here were people of status with influence. Prophets come for the guidance of everyone, but their words are especially directed towards the upper echelons of the community, as defined by their wealth and intellect, because the general public goes along with them. Mostly they follow in the footsteps of their ‘great ones,’ so that, the conveying of the divine message to the elite amounts to reaching the general public also.