The Quran

Preface

۞ قالَ المَلَأُ الَّذينَ استَكبَروا مِن قَومِهِ لَنُخرِجَنَّكَ يا شُعَيبُ وَالَّذينَ آمَنوا مَعَكَ مِن قَريَتِنا أَو لَتَعودُنَّ في مِلَّتِنا ۚ قالَ أَوَلَو كُنّا كارِهينَ

Yusuf Ali

The leaders, the arrogant party among his people, said:¹ “O Shu'aib! we shall certainly drive thee out of our city - (thee) and those who believe with thee; or else ye (thou and they) shall have to return to our ways and religion.” He said: “What! even though we do detest (them)?

The gentle, all-persuasive arguments of Shu'ayb fell on hard hearts. Their only reply was: “Turn him out! - him and his people.” When courtesy and a plea for toleration are pitted against bigotry, what room is there for logic? But bigotry and unrighteousness have their own crooked ways of pretending to be tolerant. “0 yes!” they said, “We are very tolerant and long-suffering! But we are for our country and religion. Come back to the ways of our fathers, and we shall graciously forgive you!” “Ways of their fathers!” - they meant injustice and oppression, highhandedness to the poor and the weak, fraud under cover of religion, and so on! Perhaps the righteous were the poor and the weak. Were they likely to love such ways? Perhaps there was implied a bribe as well as a threat. “If you come back and wink at our iniquities, you shall have scraps of prosperity thrown at you. If not, out you go in disgrace!”