The Quran

Preface

۞ وَإِلىٰ مَديَنَ أَخاهُم شُعَيبًا ۚ قالَ يا قَومِ اعبُدُوا اللَّهَ ما لَكُم مِن إِلٰهٍ غَيرُهُ ۖ وَلا تَنقُصُوا المِكيالَ وَالميزانَ ۚ إِنّي أَراكُم بِخَيرٍ وَإِنّي أَخافُ عَلَيكُم عَذابَ يَومٍ مُحيطٍ

Yusuf Ali

To the Madyan People¹ (We sent) Shu'aib, one of their own brethren: he said: “O my people! worship God. Ye have no other god but Him. And give not short measure or weight: I see you in prosperity,² but I fear for you the penalty of a day that will compass (you) all round.

Cf. 7:85-93. The location of Madyan is explained in n. 1053 to 7:85 and the chronological place of Shu'ayb in n. 1064 to 7:93. The point of the reference here is different from that in S. 7. Here the emphasis is on God’s dealings with men and men’s crooked and obstinate ways: there the emphasis was rather on their treatment of their Prophet, thus throwing light on some of the sins of the Meccans in later times.
The Midianites were a commercial people, and their besetting sin was commercial selfishness and fraudulent dealings in weights and measures. Their Prophet tells them that that is the surest way to cut short their “prosperity”, both in the material and the spiritual sense. When the Day of Judgment comes, it will search out their dealings through and through: “it will compass them all round,” and they will not be able to escape them, however much they may conceal their frauds in this world.