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What the classical commentators say about these eighteen ayat. Take this one if you want to go deeper.
Two parts in seven units: Shuʿayb and the people of Madyan (ayat 85–93), then the pattern the surah names after all five stories of the messengers (ayat 94–102).
Ayah 85 — The same call, then the measure and the weight
Allah sent Shuʿayb to the people of Madyan, their brother. His first words are the call Nuh, Hud and Salih made before him: worship Allah. Then he turns to the market: give full measure and weight, and do not cut short what is owed to people.
Source summary: Ibn Kathir says Madyan “was the name of the tribe and also a city that is close to Ma`an on route to the Hijaz (from Ash-Sham)”, and that these are the people at the well in 28:23. Of the call he says: “this is the call of all Messengers”.
Source summary: On the measure, Ibn Kathir says Shuʿayb commanded them “to refrain from cheating people in buying and selling”, and he compares 83:1–6. Al-Jalalayn: “diminish the value of people’s goods”.
Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Qurtubi gives the word bakhs its widest sense: lessening what belongs to people, by running down their goods, talking a seller out of them, cheating on the value, or tricks in measuring. All of it, he says, is taking wealth wrongfully.
Optional source note — “clear evidence”, the land set right, the same words, and a name
Source summary: On “clear evidence”, the commentators differ. Ibn Kathir: “Allah has presented the proof and evidences of the truth of what I brought you.” Al-Jalalayn calls it “a miracle”. Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Qurtubi notes that the Qur’an does not name a miracle of Shuʿayb.
Paraphrase from the Arabic: On “after its reformation”, al-Qurtubi reports Ibn ʿAbbas: before Shuʿayb, sins were done in the open; when he was sent, the land was set right, and every prophet sent to a people is their setting right. Al-Jalalayn: “set right through the sending of messengers thereto”.
Our check of the Arabic: from “He said” to “from your Lord”, Shuʿayb’s words are Salih’s at 7:73, word for word, and they begin as Hud’s did at 7:65. That comparison is ours, not a commentator’s.
Source summary: Ibn Kathir: “Shu`ayb was called `Speaker of the Prophets', because of his eloquent words and eloquent advice”. Al-Qurtubi gives the same name.
Facilitator guidance
For the facilitator: “Speaker of the Prophets” is a name Shuʿayb was known by; say it that way. One report gives it as the Prophet’s ﷺ own words, through a chain that does not reach him, so it is not used here as a hadith. The commentators’ lists of Shuʿayb’s ancestors and other names are not on these pages.
Reflection: The first thing Shuʿayb names after worship is the scale. Faith and fair dealing come in one breath.
Ayat 86–87 — The roads, and two groups
Shuʿayb tells them not to sit on every road, threatening people and turning believers away from Allah’s path. If they are split into two groups over him, let them wait until Allah judges.
Source summary: What did they do on the roads? Ibn Kathir gives two readings. Al-Suddi: they were bandits, threatening people “with death if they do not give up their money”. Ibn ʿAbbas, Mujahid and others: they threatened “the believers who come to Shu`ayb to follow him”. Ibn Kathir prefers the first, and reads the rest of the ayah, turning people from Allah’s path, as the second.
Paraphrase from the Arabic: On ayah 87, al-Qurtubi says “be patient” does not give them leave to stay as they are; it is a warning. Al-Tabari: Allah is the best of judges because there is no leaning and no favour in His judgment. Al-Jalalayn: Allah judges “by delivering the affirmer of this truth and destroying the denier of it”.
Optional source note — a third reading, and “few”
Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Qurtubi calls the second reading the apparent meaning. Al-Tabari also reports al-Suddi that they took a tax on the roads, and al-Jalalayn has them “seizing their garments or by charging them excise tax”.
Source summary: “Remember when you were few and He increased you”: Ibn Kathir says “you were weak because you were few. But you later on became mighty because of your large numbers”. Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Qurtubi adds a second sense: you were poor, and He made you rich.
Facilitator guidance
For the facilitator: A story of a plank lying across a road, told about the Prophet’s ﷺ night journey, is sometimes brought to ayah 86. Its narrator was unsure where he had it from, and it is not established, so it is not on these pages.
Reflection: A road is where people come and go. Shuʿayb names two ways to block it: taking from people, and frightening them away from the good.
Ayat 88–89 — Leave, or come back; “Our Lord, decide between us”
The chiefs threaten to drive out Shuʿayb and the believers unless they return to the chiefs’ religion. Shuʿayb refuses: going back would be a lie against Allah. He leaves the matter to Allah, and asks his Lord to decide between them in truth.
Source summary: “Return”, when Shuʿayb had never been in their religion? Al-Jalalayn: the chiefs speak to Shuʿayb and his followers together, “because Shu‘ayb was never part of their religious community”, and he answers in the same plural. Ibn Kathir: they spoke to Shuʿayb “but intended it for those who followed his religion too”. Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Qurtubi adds that the verb can also mean simply to come to be.
Source summary: “Except that Allah, our Lord, should will”: the commentators read it in more than one way. Ibn Kathir: “This part of the Ayah refers all matters to Allah's will”. The other readings are in the source note below.
Source summary: “Our Lord, decide between us”: Ibn Kathir explains, “judge between us and our people and give us victory over them”, for “You are the Most Just Who never wrongs any in His judgment.” The word is iftaḥ, which usually means “open”.
Optional source note — more readings, and when Shuʿayb made this du'a
Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Qurtubi gives three readings: nothing happens except by Allah’s will, which al-Zajjaj calls the view of Ahl al-Sunnah; a handing of the matter to Allah, as Shuʿayb says in Surah Hud that his success is only through Allah (11:88); or a way of saying it will never happen. Al-Tabari: unless it has already gone before in Allah’s knowledge; he also reports al-Suddi: Allah does not will shirk.
Source summary: “Even if we were unwilling?” Ibn Kathir: “would you force us to do that, even though we hate what you are calling us to”. Al-Jalalayn: the question “is meant as a disavowal”.
Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Qurtubi reports from Ibn ʿAbbas that Shuʿayb prayed much, and made this du'a when he lost hope that his people would change; Allah answered it with the earthquake. Al-Tabari: he turned to his Lord when he despaired of them and feared for himself and the believers.
Facilitator guidance
For the facilitator: Newcomers often ask whether “return to our religion” means Shuʿayb was once in it. All four commentators say it does not. On “except that Allah, our Lord, should will”, give the readings above and do not choose between them; a deeper question about Allah’s will and decree is one to take to a qualified scholar.
Reflection: Shuʿayb is firm, and he ends in humility. He does not rest on his own firmness; he leaves it with Allah.
Ayat 90–93 — Who were the losers
The chiefs tell their people that following Shuʿayb would make them losers. The earthquake seizes them. Then the Qur’an answers the chiefs with their own word: those who denied Shuʿayb were the losers. Shuʿayb turns away: how could I grieve for a disbelieving people?
Source summary: Ayah 92 answers ayah 90. Ibn Kathir: “Allah refuted their earlier statement”. Al-Jalalayn: the repeated words are “intended as a refutation of what they had said previously”. Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Tabari: Shuʿayb’s followers did not lose; those who denied him lost. On the chiefs’ word, he explains: cheated in your bargain, and ruined.
Source summary: The end. Ibn Kathir says the earthquake shook them “as punishment for threatening to expel Shu`ayb and his followers”.
Source summary: Ayah 93 is read two ways. Ibn Kathir: “I will not feel any sorrow for you since you disbelieved”. Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Tabari reports Ibn Ishaq: Shuʿayb did feel grief for his people when he saw the punishment, then said this to console himself. Al-Jalalayn: the question “is meant rhetorically as a negation”.
Optional source note — three tellings of the end, “never resided”, and the people of the Wood
Source summary: Ibn Kathir joins the three places that tell it: the earthquake here, the cry in Surah Hud (11:94), and the punishment of the Day of the Shadow in Surah ash-Shuʿara (26:189). Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Qurtubi: the earthquake, and it is also said the cry. Al-Jalalayn: “the violent earthquake”.
Paraphrase from the Arabic: “As though they had never resided there”: al-Tabari, as if they had never stayed and lived there. Al-Qurtubi explains the verb as staying long in a place. It is not the word for wealth, though it looks like it.
Source summary: Ibn Kathir says the people of Madyan “are also the people of Al-Aykah (the Woods)”, named in Surah ash-Shuʿara (26:176). Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Qurtubi reports from Qatadah, and al-Tabari from al-Suddi, that Shuʿayb was sent to two peoples, Madyan and the people of the Wood. The pages give both views.
Our check of the Arabic: ayah 91 is ayah 78, the end of Thamud, word for word. Ayah 93 begins as Salih’s farewell at 7:79, but says “messages”, in the plural, as Nuh and Hud said it (7:62, 7:68).
Facilitator guidance
For the facilitator: Keep the earthquake with the text and its tafsir. Do not tie it to any earthquake or disaster in the news. The commentators’ longer stories about the heat, the cloud and the kings of Madyan are reports, and they are not on these pages.
Reflection: The chiefs counted loss in money and standing. The passage counts it by where a person ends.
Ayat 94–95 — Hardship, then ease, and “Our fathers [also]”
Now the surah steps back from the five stories. To every city that denied its prophet, Allah sent hardship, so that they might humble themselves. Then He gave them ease, until they grew many, and they said: our fathers had both. So He seized them suddenly.
Source summary: The two words for the hardship, al-baʾsāʾ and al-ḍarrāʾ, are read the opposite way round by two commentators. Ibn Kathir: the first “refers to the physical sicknesses and ailments that they suffered”, the second to “the poverty and humiliation that they experienced”. Al-Jalalayn gives the first as severe poverty and the second as illness.
Source summary: “That they might humble themselves”: Ibn Kathir, so that they would “supplicate, humble themselves and invoke Allah”. The hardship came with a door left open.
Source summary: “Until they increased”, the word ʿafaw: Ibn Kathir, “increase in numbers, wealth and offspring”.
Source summary: “Our fathers [also] were touched with hardship and ease.” Ibn Kathir: they said “it is a cycle where we sometimes suffer a hardship and at other times, we enjoy a bounty”, and “they did not comprehend Allah's wisdom, nor the fact that He is testing them in both cases.” Al-Jalalayn: “this is nothing but the habit of time and not the consequence of God”. Ibn Kathir then cites the narration of the believer’s affair, the second core reading on the hadith page.
Optional source note — who is told this, and the readings of ʿafaw
Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Tabari reports the same from Ibn ʿAbbas, Mujahid, al-Suddi and others: they grew many, as plants grow. Qatadah read it as: they were pleased; al-Tabari does not accept that, unless it means pleased with their numbers. Al-Qurtubi: the word has two opposite senses, to grow abundant and to be wiped away.
Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Tabari: Allah tells the Prophet ﷺ His way with the earlier nations, as a warning to his own people. Al-Jalalayn adds the step the ayah leaves out: the hardship came “when they denied him”.
Facilitator guidance
For the facilitator: In this passage the hardship is sent to peoples who had denied their prophets, and it comes “that they might humble themselves”. It is not a way to read anyone’s illness or poverty as a punishment: believers are tested too. Ibn Kathir brings two more narrations at this ayah; they are not on the hadith page.
Reflection: Neither the hard years nor the good years moved them. The narration on the hadith page shows the other way: thanks in ease, patience in hardship.
Ayat 96–99 — If only they had believed; feeling safe
Had the people of the cities believed and feared Allah, He would have opened blessings on them from the sky and the earth. They denied, and were seized. Did they feel safe, at night or in the morning, from the plan of Allah? No one feels safe from it but the losing people.
Source summary: The blessings, barakāt: Ibn Kathir, “the rain that falls from the sky and the vegetation of the earth”. Al-Jalalayn: “by way of rain” and “by way of vegetation”.
Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Qurtubi gives a caution with this ayah. It is said of the peoples already named. Believers, too, may be tested with a narrow living, as an expiation of their sins. So the ayah is not a promise that faith brings wealth.
Al-Tabari: no surviving comment on ayat 96–98. The printed edition and its manuscript go straight on from ayah 95 to ayah 99, and no later commentator quotes him on these three ayat (the editor, Shakir, in his note at 7:99).
Source summary: “The plan of Allah”: the commentators explain it, and none of them means trickery. Ibn Kathir: “His torment, vengeance, and His power to destroy them while they are inattentive and heedless”. Al-Jalalayn: “His drawing them on by degrees through graces and then seizing them suddenly”. Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Tabari says much the same as al-Jalalayn. Al-Qurtubi: His punishment, as the recompense for their own plotting, or His drawing them on by favour and health.
Source summary: Ibn Kathir closes with al-Hasan al-Basri: “The believer performs the acts of worship, all the while feeling fear, in fright and anxiety. The Fajir (wicked sinner, or disbeliever) commits the acts of disobedience while feeling safe (from Allah's torment)!”
Optional source note — the people of Yunus, the night and the morning
Source summary: Ibn Kathir adds that no town believed as a whole except the people of Yunus (10:98, 37:147–148).
Source summary: At night and in the morning: Ibn Kathir, “while they are busy in their affairs and unaware”. Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Qurtubi: the questions are a rebuke, and “at play” means busy with what does not help them.
Facilitator guidance
For the facilitator: Never tie these ayat to a present-day disaster, famine or economy, and never read ayah 96 as a promise that faith makes you rich. Being drawn on by ease has its own ayat later in this surah (7:182–183); name it here, and leave the teaching for then.
Reflection: Ayah 96 says they did not believe, āmanū. Ayat 97–99 ask whether they felt safe, amina. It is one root: two ways of resting, one in Allah and one in yourself. That link is our reading of the corpus count.
Ayat 100–102 — The heirs, the cities’ news, and the covenant
Those who inherit the land after a people destroyed should see that Allah could take them too. These are the cities whose news is told to the Prophet ﷺ. Their messengers brought clear proofs, and they would not believe what they had already denied. In most of them no covenant was kept.
Source summary: Ibn ʿAbbas, in Ibn Kathir: “did We not make clear to them that had We willed, We would have punished them because of their sins”. Ibn Kathir compares 20:128 and 32:26: people walk among the homes of those destroyed before them.
Source summary: “They were not to believe in that which they had denied before”: the commentators give four views. Ibn Kathir: they would not believe later “because they denied the truth when it first came to them”, the explanation of Ibn ʿAtiyyah, and he calls it “sound”, comparing 6:109–110.
Optional source note — which cities, and the other three views of ayah 101
Paraphrase from the Arabic: Which cities? Al-Tabari and al-Qurtubi: those of Nuh, ʿAd, Thamud, Lut and Shuʿayb, the five stories of this part of the surah. Al-Qurtubi: they are told as a comfort to the Prophet ﷺ and the believers. Ibn Kathir compares 17:15: no people is punished before a messenger is sent.
Paraphrase from the Arabic: Al-Tabari prefers the view of Ubayy ibn Kaʿb and al-Rabiʿ: it was already in Allah’s knowledge, from the day of the covenant. Al-Suddi: on that day they believed only unwillingly. Mujahid: even if they were brought back, they would not believe; al-Tabari does not accept this one. Al-Jalalayn: they persisted in disbelief.
Source summary: The covenant: Ibn Kathir, “The covenant mentioned here is the Fitrah that Allah instilled in them while still in their fathers' loins”.
Optional source note — the covenant
Paraphrase from the Arabic: al-Qurtubi reports Ibn ʿAbbas the same, and al-Hasan: the covenant made with them through the prophets, to worship Allah alone. Al-Tabari: the charge they were given, which they did not keep.
Facilitator guidance
For the facilitator: Ayah 101 can sound to a newcomer as if these peoples never had a choice. Ibn Kathir’s preferred reading keeps it with what they chose: they denied the truth when it first came. And ayah 94 has already said the hardship came “that they might humble themselves”. The covenant in the loins has its own ayah later in this surah (7:172); name it, and teach it there.
Reflection: Ayah 100 speaks to whoever lives where others lived before. That is all of us.
Sources and further reading
- Tafsir Ibn Kathir (English, abridged) — Read for every ayah; the full Arabic was read too. on 7:85 ↗ · on 7:86–87 ↗ · on 7:88–89 ↗ · on 7:90–92 ↗ · on 7:93 ↗ · on 7:94–95 ↗ · on 7:96–99 ↗ · on 7:100 ↗ · on 7:101–102 ↗ · Arabic, from 7:85 ↗
- Tafsir al-Jalalayn (English, trans. Feras Hamza) — Word-level glosses on every ayah; the Arabic text was read too. on 7:85 ↗ · 86 ↗ · 88 ↗ · 92 ↗ · 94 ↗ · 95 ↗ · 96 ↗ · 99 ↗ · 101 ↗
- Tafsir al-Tabari (Arabic, Shakir’s edition) — Read for every ayah; there is no surviving comment on 7:96–98. on 7:85 ↗ · 86 ↗ · 89 ↗ · 92 ↗ · 93 ↗ · 95 ↗ · 99 ↗ · 101 ↗ · 102 ↗
- Tafsir al-Qurtubi (Arabic) — Read for every ayah. on 7:85 ↗ · 86 ↗ · 88 ↗ · 89 ↗ · 91 ↗ · 95 ↗ · 96 ↗ · 101 ↗ · 102 ↗
- Quranic Arabic Corpus — Roots and counts on the Arabic words page. 7:85 word by word ↗