[ 199 ] AND I FEAR FOR YOU THE TORMENT OF AN ENCOMPASSING DAY.

Median was a land inhabited by a people who were the offspring of Ishmael stretched on the eastern side of the Gulf of Aqaba, and now it is called Moa"n. The Medians were a commerical people, and had many successful merchants. Their commerical caravans travelled to Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon. It is said that it was the medianite commerical caravan to which JOSEPH was sold into slavery, and then he was taken to Egypt.

According to the above verses the medianite's major sins were:ِ [ 200 ] Being idolaters. 2) Giving short weights and dealing in fraud. 3) Depriving people of their rightful dues. 4) Making mischief in the land, such as highway robbery and agitating the orders. Shuaib their prophet who was as well-wisher as a brother to them, began his preaching with faith in God, which is the source of all virtues, saying:ِ ``O, my people!

Worship Allah that you have no other God except Him.'' He told them not diminish the goods of people and give them their just dues, that your fraudulent dealings in weight and measure, may ruin your spirit and destruct your prosperity. That the bad and harmful effects of your evil deeds will eventually encompass you, so that you won't be able to escape it. But his people rejected the truthful Message that Shuaib had brought to them from their Lord.

They disobeyed their prophet, and the wrath of Allah seized them in a night, the morning of which their houses had turned to their graves!