Surah 29. Al-Ankabut, Ayah 37

See note [62] on 7:78 (a passage which relates to the tribe of Thamud), and note [73] on 7:91 .

The story of Shu'aib and the Madyan people is only referred to here. It is told in xi. 84-95. Their besetting sin was fraud and commercial immorality. Their punishment was a mighty Blast, such as accompanies volcanic eruptions. The point of the reference here is that they went about doing mischief on the earth, and never thought of the Ma'ad or the Hereafter, the particular theme of this Sura. The same point is made by the brief references in the following two verses to the 'Ad and the Thamud, and to Qarun, Pharaoh, and Haman, though the besetting sin in each case was different. The Midianites were a commercial people and trafficked from land to land; their frauds are well described as spreading "mischief on the earth".