Articles

The Prophet Jethro (SHUAIB) (A.S)

The Holy Quran says: “And to Madyan (We sent) their brother Jethro. He said: O my people! Serve God, you have no god other than Him; clear proof indeed has come to you from your Lord, therefore give full measure and weight and do not diminish to men their things, and do not make mischief in the land after its reform; this is better for you if you are believers.” (7:85)
Madyan was the name of one of the sons of Prophet Abraham (A.S). Madyan was married to one of the daughters of Prophet Lut (A.S) and God blessed this union with abundance of male issues and wealth. The place where the children of ‘Madyan’ had settled was named after Madyan. Madyan was located in the outskirts of Hijaz but within the border of Syria near Red Sea. The city of Madyan comprised of 40 houses. Prophet Jethro (A.S) belonged to the family of Madyan and he was the father-in-law of Prophet Moses. The people of Madyan were passing a peaceful life. Their profession was trade; buying and selling goods. Though they had been blessed with all the bounties of God, yet they altogether ignored the Almighty God and started worshipping things created by God.
The Almighty God appointed Prophet Jethro to his people. He forbade them to commit sins and unlawful things and frightened them of God’s torment.
One of the miracles of Prophet Jethro was that whenever he wanted to get upon the peak of any mountain, mountain used to lower its height and Prophet Jethro got upon it. The Miraculous staffs which Prophet Moses had are reported to have been given to him by Prophet Jethro.
Prophet Jethro preached his people besides oneness of God, to be honest in their dealings for they were notorious for two main vices:
(1)Use of wrong measures of weight; they used to take more in weight and give less when they measured and weighed for others.
(2)Robbery.
Prophet Jethro said to them: “And I do not ask you any reward for it, my reward is only with the Lord of the worlds.” (26:180)
They used to say: “O Jethro! Do the prayers that you offer tell that we should sever our connections with the gods, whom our forefathers worshipped, and also change our customs regarding money and property to adopt an altogether different mode? Do you want us to abandon under weighing goods in sales transactions and bear the loss? No, most of your things that you talk about are not understood by us. You are a weak and vulnerable person. If you had not your family we would have stoned you to death.”
But despite the hostile attitude of his people Prophet Jethro did not change his stand and continued preaching his people in an affectionate manner like an affectionate father who teaches his sons wise things. At the same time the people also did not give up opposing Prophet Jethro’s preaching’s and interfering in his Divine mission. They sat on the thoroughfares and let loose dogs and boars to chase the followers of Prophet Jethro and threatened to kill them. Ultimately the people’s differences with Prophet Jethro turned so grave that they threatened to expel him and his handful of followers from the town.
At last Prophet Jethro became disappointed with his people and understood that his preaching’s were going to have no effect on them. Thus he invoked the Almighty God to curse them by sending His torment on them as a punishment for their infidelity (Reference 7:89). The Almighty God granted his invocation and a severe earthquake overtook the people of Madyan. The earth shook with such great intensity that in a moment their abodes were razed to ground and they met their miserable end. Only Prophet Jethro and his followers were saved from the wrath of God.
After the devastation of the people of Madyan, Prophet Jethro was entrusted the mission of preaching the people of al-Aikah who lived near Madyan. Prophet Jethro performed his Divine duty and called the people to worship God but they said in reply: “You have been charmed. There is something wrong with you. You are a human being like us. We do not give any credence to what you say. If you are truthful let a piece of heaven fall on our heads to destroy us.”
Prophet Jethro’s efforts were in vain as not a single man amongst those people embraced his religion. But the Almighty God treated them with an unbearable heat. It was so intense that water began boiling down. For seven (7) days they remained in great torment of heat. Then a piece of cloud appeared on the sky and the people rushed under its shadow to take shelter from the scorching heat. Meantime, the cloud rained fire on them and thus those people were destroyed in no time.

Taken from: Ahlulbayt Portal Website