The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 3) — Page 174
CH. 11 HŪD They say bb i. e. he guarded, kept, protected or took care of him or it; he defended him or he paid frequent attention to him or it. bbl means, he or it surrounded, encompassed or enclosed it or him. They say i. e. such a one was destroyed, or his destruction drew near. The Quranic words by mean, verily thy Lord hath men in His grasp or power, or He hath destroyed them or is about to destroy them. means, surrounding, encompassing enclosing. The words, be mean, the punishment of a day which shall beset people on every side so that there will be no way of escape from it; or the punishment of a destructive day (Lane). محيط or Cele (Midian) was a son of Abraham from his third wife, Keturah (Gen. 25:1, 2). His descendants were all called Midian, in accordance with ancient usage. Or it may be that originally they were called "Banū Midian" (children of Midian) but these words later became abbreviated into Midian. The metropolis of these people was also called Midian, which itself may be an abbreviation of some such name as Dūri Midian (the houses of Midian). This town was situated on the Gulf of ‘Akabah, on the Arabian coast, at a distance of some six or seven miles from the sea. This is why in some ancient books of geography it is mentioned as a sea port, while in others it is shown as an inland town. The trade caravans going from Arabia to Egypt passed through it. There are still several small townships known as Midian, but the original town no longer exists. PT. 12 The descendants of Midian lived in the north of the Hijaz and it is they who built this town. It was hither that Moses fled for refuge when Pharaoh and his nobles sought to kill him and it was in the neighbourhood of Midian that he stayed with the Israelites after crossing the Red Sea. The fact that the word (Midian) possesses a close resemblance to do (Medina), the town of the Holy Prophet, constitutes one of the many similarities Moses had with the Holy Prophet. See also 7:86. (Shu'aib). See 7:86. Commentary: Some commentators think that Shu'aib was the father-in-law of Moses and that Moses had gone to live with him after he had killed an Israelite. The Bible, however, gives the name of the father-in-law of Moses as Jethro (Exod. 3:1). Now Jethro and Shu'aib cannot be the same person, nor was Shu'aib the father-in-law of Moses. The following facts support this view: (1) Shu'aib has been mentioned in the Quran at several places and so has the father-in-law of Moses, but nowhere in the Quran is there the slightest hint that Shu'aib and the father-in-law of Moses were the same person nor has the father-in-law of Moses anywhere been referred to as a Prophet of God. 1382 (2) The Quran clearly states that Moses was raised as a Prophet after the destruction of the people of Midian (7:104), which definitely shows that they were not contemporaries.