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Dear reader, notice that Jethro is an approximated name for this prophet. In the translation of the chapter of Moses you will find that the author of the book pointing out that Moses did not marry the daughter of Yiþrun or Yiþri, who was a faithful man or the chief of Midian, and apparently this name is just Jethro, the name that was mentioned in Torah. But since muslims believe that Moses married one of Shu`ayb's daughter, and since in Torah it is mentioned that Moses married the daughter of a man called Jethro, I decided to let Jethro as a representative name for Shu`ayb since it is more of Latin sense, but be careful not to mix things together, Jethro is still not meant to be the same person that Torah pointed out as for muslims do!
 

Shu`ayb (Jethro) The Prophet (PUH)

He is Shu`ayb (Jethro) ben Nowayt ben Ra`u'eel (Reuel) ben Murrah ben `Anqâ' ben Midian ben Abraham (PUH) [notice: unfortunately I couldn't find the ancestry of Jethro in Torah to check with the name listed above in Arabic, but for Nowayt it is close to the name Nahath mentioned in Torah as one of Reuel sons, but Reuel is a son for Esau and do not follow the chain mentioned here, but Nahath and Nowayt have some similarities as you can see], and his tongue was Arabic and was sent from the people of Midian as it is mentioned in Muruj Al-Ðahab, and `Atâ' [seems a person's name] said: He is Shu`ayb ben Nowayt ben Midian ben Abraham (PUH) and he was called the Speaker of Prophets for his billiant ways in debate with his people and his talent in proving his point against his people and disapprove their clues, and his people here is meant to be the people of Al-Aykah (the dwellers in the wood), and some say that he was sent twice, once to Midian and once to Al-Aykah (and it is a place near Midian with lot of waters and trees). It is mentioned that he was the first one to measure the balance with his hands so they were measruing with honesty but then they cheated in their measures so then they were taken by a great shake and left dead in their dwelling place, it is mentioned also that he sent some messangers from his side to the people, and one of his messangers was Shu'ayb ben Sâlih, he sent him to his (Shu`ayb ben Sâlih's) people but they killed him and threw him in a well, and it is possible that he was sent to the lands of Shem as it is shown by history and traces, and one of his messengers was Hassân ben Sinân Al-Awzaâ`ee, he was the messanger of Jethro to the lands of Africa so he went to them calling for faith in God and work to fullful His commandments, but they called him a liar and kept him a prisoner in a hole until he died, and another one was Al-Hâriþ ben Shu`yb Al-Ghassâni, and he was Jethro's messanger to Midian but they called him a liar and killed him as well. Jethro used to cry a lot, and as attributed to Anas ben Mâlik that he reported from the prophet (PUH) that he said: Jethro cried for God's love until he became blind, and then his sightness was brought back to him by God, then he cried again until he became blind and God brought his sightness again, and so on until the fourth time when God inspired to him: O Jethro, until what time you shall be crying? If it was for your fear of hell, then know that I protected you against it, and if it was for your love for paradise, then know that I made it for you, so then he said: O my Lord and Master, You know that I did not cry for the fear of Your hell nor for the love of Your paradise, but Your love is knotted in my heart and I can't keep patience to see You, then God inspired to him: if it was like that then I will send to you my speaker Moses ben Amram (PUH) to serve you, and this story could have many interpretations, maybe the most probable of all is that he meant "I will keep crying until I see you after my death."
What we understand from all of this is that Jethro was alone and had no one to believe in him and in his Lord and in the right path, except of hypocrites, so he was hated by everyone, and had no one to love except of God, like for someone that has only one child and loving him so much and afraid to lose him so he keeps on being sad. What is said by the prophet Jethro to God is exactly in the same meaning of what the prince of believers, `Ali ben Abi-Tâlib (PUH) said: I did not worship You for my fear of Your hell, nor for my love to Your paradise, but I found that You are the One that to be worshipped and so I did.
The chapters the mentioned the story of Jethro (Shu`ayb) are: Al-A`râf, Hud, Al-Shu`arâ', Al-`Ankabut, and others. God said: And unto Midian (We sent) their brother, Shu'eyb. He said: O my people! Serve Allah. Ye have no other Allah save Him. Lo! a clear proof hath come unto you from your Lord; so give full measure and full weight and wrong not mankind in their goods, and work not confusion in the earth after the fair ordering thereof. That will be better for you, if ye are believers.Lurk not on every road to threaten (wayfarers), and to turn away from Allah's path him who believeth in Him, and to seek to make it crooked. And remember, when ye were but few, how He did multiply you. And see the nature of the consequence for the corrupters!(Al-A`râf:85-86), and there are lot of others holy phrases and the contents are almost the same.
Midian was the name of his village and there lived his tribe and the father of the tribe was Midian the son of the Abraham (PUH) and so the village and the tribe were named after him, for this God did say "And unto Midian (We sent) their brother, Shu'eyb," meaning that We sent their brother Shu`ayb (Jethro) to Midian, and he was sent also to Al-Aykah (the wood dwellers) and they were also part of his people, and we've mentioned before that Al-Aykah is near by Midian and it is a place of lot of waters and trees, and so he came to them with what was revealed on his grandfather Abraham (PUH) from the Exalted One, he came to them with the fair laws of His religion with whatever it contains of regulations and worshipping and what is prohibited and what is allowed and what would bring them happiness in life and the after-life, so he ordered them to be fair in their measurements while weighing to give the right amount by themselves so they don't cheat in their dealings with others, and not to do mischiefs on earth after being fixed by others before them, by prophets and messangers and their viceroys with the faithful men, and not to follow the lusts and doing sins and not to allow what God forbade and forbid what God allowed just to follow the lusts. They used to sit on the roads and try to keep the people away from reaching him for they were afraid that they will leave the worshipping of the idols, and they used to mock at his way (of guiding) and warn and threaten everyone that believes in him and wanted to make the path of God to be crooked, and they did their best to ignore the calls of Jethro (PUH) and they used to say to him: O Shu'eyb! We understand not much of that thou tellest(Hud:91), and also they humbled him by saying: and lo! we do behold thee weak among us(Hud:91), and then they threatened him by saying: But for thy family, we should have stoned thee, for thou art not strong against us(Hud:91), but inspite of all of this he kept on calling for the faith of God until he embarrased his people by proving the falsehood of their beliefs and proved to them the righteousness of his path, for he was calling to what they hate of the faith and to be straight in their dealings and fair, so when they got annoyed by his clues against their religion, their tyrants gathered together and threatened him to banish him out of the village with his followers if they did not get back to their religion, but he answered them by saying: Even though we hate it? We should have invented a lie against Allah if we returned to your religion after Allah hath rescued us from it(Al-A`râf:88-89), but that would be if God wanted to keep us away from His closeness. God forbids to make the one who called for Him and who called to His path astray. So, their only way was to warn their people not to be tricked and join his religion telling them that they will be losers if they did so. The most important thing that they were denying about his religion is that he ordered not to worship what their fathers used to worship and not to do whatever they like in their money and in their measurements and dealings with others.
They mocked at his prayer that orders him with these commands as they claim and they said to him as to mock at him "thou art the mild, the guide to right behaviour." After all he kept on being patience and come to them from time to time and proving their falsehood until God ordered for them to be destroyed, and the earthquake seized them, and they were all destroyed as if they did not live there and Jethro with his followers were saved. Then God sent him to the people of Al-Aykah and it was close to Midian and there lived some God worshippers, and some said that it was in the deserts of Midian and Jethro was a foreigner for them and they used to do as the people of Midian used to do, so when he commanded them not to do so they said to him: Thou art but one of the bewitched; Thou art but a mortal like us, and lo! we deem thee of the liars(Al-Shu`arâ':185-186), for they thought that God do not send a human to human beings to guide them and they did not know that God makes His message where He desires.
They asked him for miracles and asked him to make pieces of the sky fall upon them to prove that he's truthful, and they did not ask him for guidance to the true path, and so they were taken by the punishment of the day of gloom, when God revealed upon them an extreme heat for seven days until their waters were boiled. Then God drove a cloud to them and they gathered under the shadow of that cloud to avoid the heat and then the cloud rained them with fire so all were burnt and died and God said about that day: Lo! it was the retribution of an awful day(Al-Shu`arâ':189). Some said that they were destroyed by an earthquake and some said that God revealed an extreme heat on them that took their breathes away, so then they went inside their homes but it got into their homes as well and no shadow nor water could avoid them that. Then God sent to them a nice breeze and they called each other to follow that breeze and when they were all out and gathered under the cloud, God made it rain fire on them and the earth shaked under their feet and they were burnt like locusts and turned to ashes, and this is the day of gloom. Some said that God sent to them one shout and they all turned to be dead.
It is mentioned that Jethro was sent to two tribes, one of them was destroyed by the earthquake and the other by the day of gloom, and there should be no contradictions between the tales since all tales point out to one thing in general which is their destruction by God for their rebellious nature against God and His prophet [2 lines come then but I did not get what the author meant!].
It is mentioned that after the destruction of his people, Jethro went back to his original place and the dwelling place of his tribe and that is Midian with his faithful followers and he lived there, and there he met Moses ben Amram (PUT), and it seems that it was a fertile land and their people used to live in luxury and they were traders and their land was a destination for many others, and its location might be in Palestine and whatever is mentioned about its location saying that it is between Hijâz and the lands of Shem does not oppose that idea (of being in Palestine), and we've mentioned before the speech of Al-Sâdiq (PUH) when he said that God sent only five prophets from Arabs and they were: Hud, Sâlih, Ishmael, Jethro and Muhammad (PUT), and in a speech for Al-Bâqir (PUH) he said: God inspired unto Jethro that He will punish one hundred thousand of his people, forty thousand of their tyrants and sixty thousand of their good ones, so he (Jethro) asked: and why the good people O Lord? Then God inspired unto him: for their easiness with the tyrants and they did not be angry along with My wrath, and as attributed to Ibn `Abbas he said that Jethro lived for two hundred and forty and two years, and some of its relative stories would come in advance in the chapter that discusses the conditions of Moses ben Amram, may peace be upon him and upon our prophet (PUT).
 
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