The Spider (Al-‘Ankabut)
Verses 36-37 GROUP_1031 29.36-37
36
وَإِلَى مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا فَقَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ وَارْجُوا الْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَ وَلَا تَعْثَوْا فِي الْأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ
To the people of Midian We sent their brother Shu‘ayb. He said, ‘My people, worship God, and look forward to the Last Day, and do not commit evil and spread corruption in the land.’
37
فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الرَّجْفَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا فِي دَارِهِمْ جَاثِمِينَ
But they rejected him, so the earthquake overwhelmed them and they were left lying prostrate on the ground in their homes.
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Commentary
(a) The community, to which Shu‘ayb was appointed as prophet, was a trading community. Its members, however, became so greedy that they resorted to earning through unfair and fraudulent means. This was how they spread corruption in the land. Legitimate trade is the rightful method of earning, while fraud and exploitation are sinful. Shu‘ayb exhorted his people not to be unmindful of the Hereafter while in pursuit of worldly gain. He beseeched them to adopt a way of life by which they could hope for a better fate in the Hereafter. But, despite the best efforts of the prophet, his community did not pay heed to his exhortations, with the result that, in accordance with the Laws of God, it was destroyed. Their homes, which had reverberated with life, became houses of death and destruction for them.