“THE CHIEFS OF HIS PEOPLE, WHO WERE ELATED WITH PRIDE, SAID: WE WILL DRIVE YOU OUT, O SHU’AYB AND THOSE WHO BELIEVE WITH YOU, OUT OF OUR CITY; OR ELSE YOU HAVE TO RETURN TO OUR RELIGION. HE [SHU'AYB] SAID: WHAT, EVEN THOUGH WE ARE UNWILLING? WE SHALL SURELY BE IMAGINING A LIE AGAINST ALLAH IF WE RETURN TO YOUR RELIGION, AFTER ALLAH HAS SAVED US THEREFROM... AND WE HAVE NO REASON TO RETURN TO IT, EXCEPT THAT ALLAH, OUR SUSTAINER, SHOULD SO WILL. OUR SUSTAINER COMPREHENDS ALL THINGS BY HIS PERFECT KNOWLEDGE. THEREFORE, IN ALLAH DO WE PUT OUR FAITH? O, OUR SUSTAINER, JUDGE BETWEEN US AND OUR PEOPLE WITH TRUTH, FOR YOU ARE THE BEST JUDGE.” (7/88, 89)

“AND THE CHIEFS OF HIS PEOPLE WHO BELIEVED NOT SAID: IF YOU FOLLOW SHU'AYB, YOU SHALL SURELY PERISH. SO, AN EARTHQUAKE SEIZED THEM, AND IN THE MORNING THEY WERE FOUND IN THEIR DWELLINGS DEAD AND PROSTRATE. THOSE WHO ACCUSED SHU'AYB OF IMPOSTURE BECAME AS THOUGH THEY HAD NEVER DWELT THEREIN. THEY WHO ACCUSED SHU'AYB OF IMPOSTURE PERISHED THEMSELVES. AND HE DEPARTED FROM THEM, AND SAID: O MY PEOPLE, INDEED I DELIVERED TO YOU THE MESSAGES OF MY SUSTAINER, AND I GAVE YOU EXCELLENT ADVICE. WHY THEN SHOULD I BE GRIEVED FOR AN UNBELIEVING PEOPLE.” (Surah Al-A'araaf : 7/90 – 93)

The Messengers of ALLAH [SWT] have generally encountered similar opposition, hatred and enmity from people, especially from the affluent, the wealthy and the rich. The TRUTH always takes on a shiny brilliance which appeals to the less fortunate, the oppressed and the poor, who have been trampled upon by their superiors. So, this struggle between the have's and have-not is as old as history, and religious laws have been the dividing line between the two.

In the time of Nabi Shu'ayb [AS], the wealthy merchants had established a stinking reputation for injustice and oppression. They overcharged people, gave wrong weights and measures, threatened people with warnings of dire consequences for demanding their rights, violated the rights of people flagrantly, and were directly responsible for much mischief and disorder in the land. Nabi Shu'ayb [AS] preached the truth to them, invited them to the worship of ONE ALLAH as their MAKER and SUSTAINER, warned them to leave the worship of gods, idols and material things, and to be fair and honest in their dealings and treatment of people.

The rich leaders of the society, we can call them the Mafiosi, refused to budge from their ill-treatment and oppression of the common people, and went on to threaten and oppose the patient and forbearing Minister of ALLAH [SWT], they taunted and teased him, they displayed arrogance and pride against him and his teachings, and they refused to give up their unjust and unethical ways.

At long last the Command of ALLAH [SWT] came to be, and the punishment of ALLAH [SWT] arrived in the form of a sudden earthquake and shattered their area, seized them in the middle of their life in their dwellings, and tremors followed tremors until their city was destroyed, and the following morning all one could see were dead bodies lying everywhere. A city of unscrupulous people were living in abundance one day, openly breaking the laws of ALLAH [SWT], resisting the truth preached by their Prophet, refusing to give up their gods and idols, allowing material lust and greed to overpower them, denying poorer people their rights, and creating disorderliness and mischief in the land. The punishment of ALLAH [SWT] in the form of an earthquake struck them and destroyed them and whatever they had built up over a considerable period of time. In a few seconds the earthquake tremors and shocks had reduced their wealth and abundance in to rubble, and brought their lives to an end.

This story of Nabi Shu'ayb [AS] and his people is such an important one, and carries so many lessons for the Ummah of RASUL'ULLAH [SAW], that ALLAH [SWT] has recounted it in several Surah's in the QUR'AN. The emphasis is always on the results of rebellion, injustice, extreme love of wealth, wrongdoing being detrimental and harmful, abuse of wealth and abundance being disastrous, oppression being destructive, unethical business practices being immoral, corrupt use of power being unacceptable, and religious apathy and neglect being reductive. This story is told in Surah Al-A'a-raaf [7 / 85-93]; Surah Hud [11 / 84-95]; Surah Shu'a-ra [26/ 177-191]; Surah Al-Ankabut [29/36 – 40].