وَإِلَىٰ مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا قَالَ يَٰقَوْمِ ٱعْبُدُوا۟ ٱللَّهَ مَا لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُۥ وَلَا تَنقُصُوا۟ ٱلْمِكْيَالَ وَٱلْمِيزَانَ
wa ilā Madyana akhāhum Shuʿaybā · qāla yā qawmi'ʿbudū'llāha mā lakum min ilāhin ghayruh · wa lā tanquṣū'l-mikyāla wa'l-mīzān · innī arākum bi-khayrin wa innī akhāfu ʿalaykum ʿadhāba yawmin muḥīṭ
"And to Midian We sent their brother Shuʿayb. He said: 'My people! Serve God; you have no god but Him. Do not give short measure and short weight. I see you in prosperity, and I fear for you the punishment of an encompassing day.'"
The fifth messenger comes in the sūra, and the opening sentence is again the same: uʿbudū'llāha mā lakum min ilāhin ghayruh — Noah (at 26, in different wording), Hūd (50), Ṣāliḥ (61) and now Shuʿayb (84). Identical, letter for letter, in three places.
| Messenger | The second command that follows the call to God's oneness |
|---|---|
| Hūd (52) | wa lā tatawallaw mujrimīn |
| Ṣāliḥ (64) | fa-dharūhā taʾkul fī arḍi'llāh — the inviolability of the she-camel |
| Shuʿayb (84-85) | lā tanquṣū'l-mikyāla wa'l-mīzān — measure and weight |
The sūra, that is, attaches the same root in each society to that society's own disease. And the disease of Midian is trade.
The order of the sentences must be recorded: first "I see you in prosperity", and immediately after "I fear for you the punishment of an encompassing day".
I record this as my own reading, and it is not binding: between the two sentences there is a wa (a wāw), not a lākin. The prosperity, that is, is named not as the ground of the punishment but as set over against it — a man with means in hand has no need to give short measure.
مُحِيط — root ح-و-ط: to encircle completely. The word will come a second time shortly, in the same sūra — at 92, inna rabbī bimā taʿmalūna muḥīṭ.
| Place | What muḥīṭ encompasses |
|---|---|
| 84 | The day — the day of punishment encompasses |
| 92 | Knowledge — the Lord has encompassed what they do |
The two uses stand eight verses apart and are from the same root; this is a repetition that can be verified from the text.
The root ب-خ-س: to give a thing less than its due, to lower its value. Thamanin bakhs — a low price. The root was treated across the whole of al-Muṭaffifīn; I rely on that treatment.
And the object of the word is worth recording: al-nāsa ashyāʾahum — "people of their things". Not the instrument of measure, but the other party's property.
I record this as an observation about the language: the verse begins by speaking of the calibration of a balance and ends at the right of a human being. And at the third step the sentence widens further: wa lā taʿthaw fi'l-arḍi mufsidīn — corruption on the earth.
| Step | Scope |
|---|---|
| lā tanquṣū'l-mikyāla | The instrument |
| lā tabkhasū'l-nāsa ashyāʾahum | The person |
| lā taʿthaw fi'l-arḍ | The earth |
Three steps: the consequence of the same act on three different scales — and this ordering is the text's own.
| View | What baqiyyatu'llāh means |
|---|---|
| A | The lawful earning God has left you — set against what is got by short measure |
| B | The recompense with God, the reward — set against what remains in this world |
| C | Obedience to God's command itself |
No preference is adopted. But it must be recorded that the sentence is built with the pattern khayrun lakum (better for you): a comparison is being made — that is, there is something standing over against it, and in this context that something is the gain got by giving short measure.
وَمَآ أَنَا۠ عَلَيْكُم بِحَفِيظٍ — "I am not a keeper over you." The same limit was treated at al-Anʿām 6/107 (wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-wakīl) and al-Shūrā 42/48.