Overall meaning : 'Shu’ayb,’ they scornfully said, 'Do your prayers, that you so often perform, instruct you that we should abandon the idols our fathers worshipped or cease earning wealth in whatever fraudulent manner we please? Indeed, you are such a tolerant, sensible man.’
'Tell me, my people,’ Shu’ayb said, 'if I stand on clear evidence from my Lord regarding what I command and forbid you to do, and He has provided me with abundant, lawful sustenance, should I fall into error and go astray as you have? I do not wish to act contrary to my instructions only to practise myself what I forbid you. I seek only to reform you and set your affairs right as far as I can. My success in this task lies only with Allah. In Him have I placed my trust, and to Him do I always turn in penitence. My people, do not let your opposition to me and your enmity towards me make you stubbornly persist in your unbelief and thus bring upon yourselves the same destruction that befell the people of Noah, the people of Hud and the people of 'ali'. It is not long since the people of Lot were punished, nor are their dwellings distant from yours. Seek forgiveness of your Lord, obey His commands and continue to do so. Surely my Lord is All-compassionate and All-Loving towards those who repent and turn to Him in penitence.’