Prophet Shuayb(as) and Qawm Madyan
Shuayb Alaihis-salaam is one of the many prophets mentioned in Holy Quran, serving as a cautionary example of a nation that has chosen and insisted on the wrong path despite persistent attempts of a divine messenger to bring them back to where they should be, being servants of Allah(j.j)
There are several suras mentioning the conflict between Prophet Shuayb(as) and people of Madyan, Al-Araf being one of them;
To the Madyan people We sent Shuayb, one of their own brethren: he said: “O my people! worship Allah; Ye have no other god but Him. Now hath come unto you a clear (Sign) from your Lord! Give just measure and weight, nor withhold from the people the things that are their due; and do no mischief on the earth after it has been set in order: that will be best for you, if ye have Faith. (Al-Araf 7-85)
Some historical sources cite the name Madyan as “Midianites”. They were a nation descendant of Prophet Abraham(as) and Prophet Moses(as) spent some time among this nation.
Prophet Shuayb(as) warned this nation not only about tahweed, oneness and uniqueness of Allah(j.j) and judgemet day, but he also called them to adopt and apply proper and just values and honest practices when it comes to business and commerce.
People of Madyan were busy in prosperous commercial activities. As usual, in a society where business activities enrich certain group of people, capitalism can emerge easily and sense of socio-economic justice is buried into the ground. Shuayb(as) deliberately warned them about “halal profit” since it was obvious that the main income for the financial moguls of Madyan was every form of usury and other forms illegal monetary practices.
These financial barons, insisted in denying the call of Prophet Shuayb(as) by claiming that they were proud followers of their ancestors’ religions and questioned the authenticity of the message Shuayb(as) was delivering.
As usual, the main culprit in the cases between the divine messengers and powerful elite throughout the history of mankind has always been “business as usual”.
People of Madyan knew very well about the fact that they were following a icononic-symbolic paganist-festivity so that they can brain-wash the masses easily to bend the society for their capitalist gains. In this regard, we can easily understand why Prophet Shuayb(as) called them to the roots of their religion, to serve Allah(j.j) only along with warnings about their cutt-throat capitalist system.
Prophet Shuayb(as) warned this nation with the “qissas of the past” since qawm aad and qawm thamud faced similar ultimate ending when they refused the divine call.
It is easy to reach a conclusion that probably these financial barons who controlled the fiscal flows in the society also controlled informational channels. Therefore, apart from a few, most of Madyan people didn’t believe Prophet Shuay(as)
Holy Quran reminds us about their end:
But the earthquake took them unawares, and they lay prostrate in their homes before the morning!
The men who reject Shuayb became as if they had never been in the homes where they had flourished: the men who rejected Shuayb – it was they who were ruined! (Al-Araf 7/91-92)
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