Surah 26 (Ash-Shu‘arã), Verses 176-191 (Y6)

As-salaam wa-alaikum, brothers and sisters.

Summary

Today’s selection is from Surah 26, Ash-Shu‘arã or the Poets, verses 176-191. These verses talk of the people of Prophet Shu‘aib, his entreaties to them and the destruction of the disbelievers.

Tafseer for this selection is some more historical background on the Companions of the Wood, i.e., Ashab al-Aykah or the People of Aykah.

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Verses

Bis-millahi ar-rahman, ar-raheem.
In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful.

The Companions of the Wood, also, disbelieved their Messengers.[176] Remember Shu‘aib asked them: “Have you no fear of Allah?[177] Rest assured that I am a trustworthy Messenger of Allah towards you.[178] So fear Allah and obey me.[179] I do not ask you for any reward for my services, for my reward will be given by the Lord of the Worlds.[180] Give full measure and be not of those who cause losses to others by fraud.[181] Weigh with even scales[182] and do not cheat your fellow men of what is rightly theirs: nor spread evil in the land.[183] Fear Him Who has created you and the generations before you.”[184] 26:[176-184]

They replied: “You are surely one of those who are bewitched.[185] You are no more than a human being like us and we think that you are lying.[186] Let a fragment fall out of the sky on us if you are telling the Truth.”[187] Shu’aib said: “My Lord has full knowledge of all your actions.”[188] So they disbelieved him, and the torment of the day of darkness (dark clouds carrying Allah’s scourge) seized them, and indeed it was the torment of an extremely dreadful day.[189] Surely in this story there is a great lesson, but most of these people do not learn a lesson and become believers.[190] The fact is that your Lord is the Mighty as well as the Merciful.[191] 26:[185-191]

Ameen.

Tafseer

Concerning the Prophet Shu‘aib’s people, the Companions of the Wood or Ashab al-Aykah:

“It is reasonable to suppose that the Companions of the Wood were either the same as the Madyan, or a group among them or in their neighbourhood.

‘Madyan’ may be identified with ‘Midian.’ Midian or the Midianites are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament, though the particular incident mentioned here belongs to Arab rather than Jewish tradition. The Midianites were of Arab race, though, as neighbours of the Canaanites, they probably intermixed with them. They were a wandering tribe; it was Midianite merchants to whom Joseph was sold into slavery, and who took him to Egypt. Their principal territory in the time of Moses was in the northeast of the Sinai Peninsula, and east of the Amalekites. Under Moses, the Israelites waged a war of extermination against them: they slew the kings of Midian, slaughtered all the males, burnt their cities and castles, and captured their castle (Numbers, xxxi, 7-11).

This sounds like a total extermination. Yet a few generations afterwards, they were so powerful that the Israelites for their sins were delivered into the captivity of the Midianites for seven years: both the Midianites and their camels were without number: and the Israelites hid from them in ‘dens… caves, and strongholds’ (Judges, vii, 1-6). Gideon destroyed them again, (Judges, vii, 1-25), say about two centuries after Moses. As the decisive battle was near the hill of Moreh, not far south of Mount Tabor, we may localise the Midianites on this occasion in the northern parts of the Jordan valley, at least 200 miles north of the Sinai Peninsula.

This and the previous destruction under Moses were local, and mention no town of Midian. In later times, there was a town of Madyan on the east side of the Gulf of ‘Aqaba. It is mentioned in [the writings of] Josephus, Eusebius and Ptolemy; (Encyclopedia of Islam). Then it disappears from geography. In Muslim times, it was a revived town with quite a different kind of population, but it never flourished. The Midianites disappeared from history.

This concludes today’s episode of the 17 Verses Podcast. I hope that this selection has helped increase your understanding of the holy Qur’an just a little bit.

Thank you and be well.