Welcome to our weekly program “Path Towards Enlightenment” in which we present you a fluent and easy-to-understand explanation of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an.

We start from where we left you last Friday and here are ayahs 36 and 37 of Surah Ankabut:

وَإِلَىٰ مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا فَقَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّـهَ وَارْجُوا الْيَوْمَ الْآخِرَ وَلَا تَعْثَوْا فِي الْأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ

فَكَذَّبُوهُ فَأَخَذَتْهُمُ الرَّجْفَةُ فَأَصْبَحُوا فِي دَارِهِمْ جَاثِمِينَ

“And to Midian We sent Shuʿayb, their brother. He said, ‘O my people! Worship Allah, and expect [to encounter] the Last Day, and do not act wickedly on the earth causing corruption.”

“But they belied him, whereupon the earthquake seized them, and they lay lifeless prostrate in their homes.”

Last week we talked about the terrible fate that befell the sinful people of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Levant to whom God had sent Prophet Lot to preach and guide, but they belied him and threatened him with death. The ayahs that we recited to you now refer to the mission of Prophet Shu’ayb and mean to say that he was sent to the people of Madyan or Midian in the northwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula on the borders of what is now Jordan and Saudi Arabia near the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea. He invited the people to monotheism, to shun the worship of idols, to give up vices and social corruption, and to believe in the Day of Resurrection. It is clear that servitude to Allah the One and Only Creator, and belief in the Origin of life and Resurrection, prevent mankind from sins and corruption. But like many other arrogant and ignorant nations, the people of Madyan tried to belie the mission of Prophet Shu’ayb, ignored his kind advices and guidelines, and ridiculed him. As a result the unrepentant sinners, after having been granted decades of respite by the All-Merciful Lord to repent and reform, exposed themselves to divine wrath. After due warnings of divine punishment during which they continued to ignore and indulged in their sinful ways, a terrible earthquake seized them and in a matter of moments, the idolatrous sinners were reduced to ashes, while those who had repented and believed in God were delivered along with Prophet Shu’ayb.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1- Monotheism and Resurrection are at the top of the mission of the Prophets of God.

2- The Prophets deal with the people in a friendly and fraternal manner, and their sole goal is to prevent mankind from self-destruction.

3- The mere indulgence in sins does not incur divine wrath, but it is insistence upon sins, ridiculing of the message of God, refusing to repent and reform, and persecution of the saints that make a nation liable for divine punishment.

Now we listen to ayah 38 of Surah Ankabut:

وَعَادًا وَثَمُودَ وَقَد تَّبَيَّنَ لَكُم مِّن مَّسَاكِنِهِمْ ۖ وَزَيَّنَ لَهُمُ الشَّيْطَانُ أَعْمَالَهُمْ فَصَدَّهُمْ عَنِ السَّبِيلِ وَكَانُوا مُسْتَبْصِرِينَ

“And Āad and Thamoud, [whose fate] is evident to you from their habitations. Satan made their deeds seem decorous to them, thus he barred them from the way [of Allah], though they used to be perceptive.”

This ayah refers to the terrible fate of the sinful, unrepentant, and disbelieving nations of Aad and Thamoud in Arabia to whom God had sent the Prophets Houd and Saleh for guidance. These two nations which were inter-related, the former inhabiting southern Arabia in Yemen and the latter moving to settle north of the Hijaz near the borders of Syria, have been mentioned in several places in the holy Qur’an. They had built a highly flourishing civilization, were conscious, had the ability to discern between truth and falsehood, yet they chose a life of sins and belied the Prophets of God. The Prophets completed the argument for them, yet the people of these two nations, despite being perceptive of the invitation of the Prophets towards monotheism and moral virtues, surrendered themselves to the temptations of the ever-deceiving Satan, to the extent that every day their evil deeds seemed beautiful to them. Soon they reached a point where they had no way to return from sins and disbelief, and thus became deserving of divine punishment. As is clear from the concluding phrase of this ayah, their love for pleasures and vices enabled the Satan to entrap them in their sins by making their vicious acts appear decorous to them. He thus deprived them of their God-given perception and as a result they ignored the clear invitations of the Prophet and were annihilated.

The holy Qur’an addressing the people of Mecca in the days of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), says elsewhere in other Surahs that the disbelieving Arabs should see the ruins of the cities of Aad and Thamoud in the lands of Hijr and Yemen, alongside the caravan routes, in order to contemplate over their fate and what caused their destruction. It means to say that it ought to become clear to you on seeing the ruins of their once magnificent cities, in your journeys toward Yemen and Syria for commerce and trade every year, while crossing the land Hijr, which is located in the north of Arabia, and the land of Ahqaaf, which is located in the south and near to Yemen. You observe the ruins of the cities of Aad and Thamoud with your own eyes; then why do you not heed the lessons?

From this ayah we learn that:

1. The ruins of the past civilizations that dot many parts of the Earth, could serve as eye-openers for people with a grain of conscience, enabling them to reflect on the terrible fate that befell once powerful nations, and how to avoid diving punishment by heeding the guidelines of divine Prophets.

2. Satan, who is the avowed enemy of the human race, makes mankind indulge in sins and disobedience of the commandments of God Almighty, by making pleasures of the flesh and other immoral acts, appear beautiful, thereby depriving them of conscience and proper perception.

3. Among the sins which the ever-deceiving devil makes decorous for human beings are pride, superiority-complex, flaunting of wealth, abuse of power, and indulgence in such abominable behaviour as promiscuity, sodomy, lesbianism, and other unnatural and illicit sexual behaviours.

Now we listen to ayahs 39 and 40 of Surah Ankabut:

وَقَارُونَ وَفِرْعَوْنَ وَهَامَانَ ۖ وَلَقَدْ جَاءَهُم مُّوسَىٰ بِالْبَيِّنَاتِ فَاسْتَكْبَرُوا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَمَا كَانُوا سَابِقِينَ

فَكُلًّا أَخَذْنَا بِذَنبِهِ ۖ فَمِنْهُم مَّنْ أَرْسَلْنَا عَلَيْهِ حَاصِبًا وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ أَخَذَتْهُ الصَّيْحَةُ وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ خَسَفْنَا بِهِ الْأَرْضَ وَمِنْهُم مَّنْ أَغْرَقْنَا ۚ وَمَا كَانَ اللَّـهُ لِيَظْلِمَهُمْ وَلَـٰكِن كَانُوا أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ

“And Korah, Pharaoh, and Hāmān. Certainly Moses brought them manifest proofs, but they acted arrogantly in the land; though they could not outmaneuver [Allah].”

“So We seized each [of them] for his sin: among them were those upon whom We unleashed a rain of stones, and among them were those who were seized by the Cry, and among them were those whom We caused the earth to swallow, and among them were those whom We drowned. It was not Allah who wronged them, but it was they who used to wrong themselves.”

These ayahs refer to the terrible fate that befell some arrogant persons, tyrants, and mischief-makers, such as the super-rich Israelite Korah, the Egyptian Pharaoh who considered himself divine, and his devilish minister Haman, who devised plots against Prophet Moses. Korah was the epiphany of wealth together with pride, egoism, and negligence. Pharaoh was the epiphany of arrogant power and tyranny, and Haman being an assistant of oppressive tyrants was the epiphany mischievousness. Prophet Moses spared no efforts to guide all these three errant persons, beginning with Pharaoh and Haman and ending with Korah after the Israelites had been saved from bondage in Egypt. They refused to heed the words of truth of Moses and instead tried to eliminate him. They thought they could overcome divine will but God punished each of them in different ways. Pharaoh and Haman were drowned in the seawaters that had miraculously parted for Moses to cross to the other side from Egypt, while Korah was swallowed by the earth. The beginning of Ayah 40 refers to the divine punishments incurred by the nation of Aad on whom stones rained from the sky for 7 days, and the nation of Thamoud that was annihilated by a terrible sound followed by earthquake. Towards its end the ayah makes it clear that the punishment that befell these intransigent sinners was the result of their own deeds and the seeds of vices that they themselves had sowed, since Allah is Just and All-Merciful. He never wrongs His creatures, but provides them all opportunities to repent and reform. This ayah is indicative of the principle of freedom of will in Islam, and makes this fact fully clear that making decision everywhere and for everything belongs to man himself, and Allah has created him free, and wanted him to be free.

From these ayahs we learn that:

1. Wealth, power, and craftiness cannot avert divine punishment.

2. God has granted free will to man to discern and follow the right path, and it is man himself who brings about his own destruction by indulging in sins.