Surah Hud, Verse 83/84

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*Surah Hud, Verse 83:*

مُّسَوَّمَةً عِندَ رَبِّكَ وَمَا هِيَ مِنَ الظَّالِمِينَ بِبَعِيدٍ

Marked from your Lord, and they are not ever far from the Zalimun (polytheists, evil-doers, etc.).

#COMMENTARY

If we take the words literally, they would mean that the showers of brimstones were marked with the destiny of the wicked as decreed by Almighty ALLĀH (Sub-haanahu wata'aala).

They: Arabic, hiya: some Commentators take the pronoun to refer to the wicked cities so destroyed: the meaning then would be: those wicked cities were not so different from other cities that do wrong, for they would all suffer similar punishment! Perhaps it would be better to refer "they" to the stones of punishment by a metonymy for "punishment", 'punishment would not be far from any people that did wrong.'

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*Surah Hud, Verse 84:*

وَإِلَىٰ مَدْيَنَ أَخَاهُمْ شُعَيْبًا قَالَ يَا قَوْمِ اعْبُدُوا اللَّهَ مَا لَكُم مِّنْ إِلَٰهٍ غَيْرُهُ وَلَا تَنقُصُوا الْمِكْيَالَ وَالْمِيزَانَ إِنِّي أَرَاكُم بِخَيْرٍ وَإِنِّي أَخَافُ عَلَيْكُمْ عَذَابَ يَوْمٍ مُّحِيطٍ

And to the Madyan (Midian) people (We sent) their brother Shu'aib. He said: "O my people! Worship Allah, you have no other Ilah (God) but Him, and give not short measure or weight, I see you in prosperity; and verily I fear for you the torment of a Day encompassing.

#COMMENTARY

Compared chapter vii, verses 85-93. The location of Madyan is explained in commentary to chapter vii, verse 85 and the chronological place of Shu'aib in commentary to chapter vii, verse 93. The point of the reference here is different from that in chapter vii. Here the emphasis is on ALLĀH'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 Makkans 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 Judgement comes, it will search out their dealings through and through; "it will compass them all round", and they will not be able to escape then, however much they may conceal their frauds in this world.