Concerning his words, “I am not a guardian over you” (Hūd 11:86), the meaning is: carry out what I command purely for Allah’s sake, seeking His reward, and not so that I—or anyone else—may watch you.
They replied, “Shuʿayb, does your prayer command you to make us abandon what our fathers worship, or to prevent us from doing with our wealth whatever we wish? You are indeed the forbearing, the right-minded one!” (Hūd 11:87)
They said this in ridicule, contempt, and mockery: “Is it this prayer of yours that tells you to restrain us so that we worship none but your God and forsake what our earliest forefathers worshipped? Or that we conduct our transactions only in the manner you approve and abandon the dealings you dislike, even though we are satisfied with them? ‘You are indeed the forbearing, the right-minded one!’” (Hūd 11:87)
Ibn ʿAbbās, Maymūn ibn Mihrān, Ibn Jurayj, Zayd ibn Aslam, and Ibn Jarīr (1) said that the enemies of Allah uttered this statement in derision.
Shuʿayb answered, “My people, consider: if I stand upon a clear proof from my Lord and He has granted me from Himself a good provision, I do not wish to differ from you in what I forbid you. I desire only to set things right, so far as I can; my success is only with Allah. Upon Him I rely and to Him I turn” (Hūd 11:88).
These words are gently phrased, an invitation to the truth couched in the clearest terms. He is saying to them: “Tell me, you deniers: suppose I am upon unmistakable evidence from my Lord—that He has sent me to you—and that He has granted me a generous provision, namely prophethood and messengership, yet you have failed to recognise it; what resource remains for me with you?” This is exactly what Noah, peace be upon him, said to his people.
His statement, “I do not wish to differ from you in what I forbid you” (Hūd 11:88), means: I never command you to do something without being the first to do it myself, and whenever I forbid you something I am the first to abstain from it. This is a splendid and greatly praised trait, whereas its opposite is reprehensible and rejected; it was the behaviour adopted by the scholars of the Children of Israel in their later days and by their ignorant preachers. Allah, Exalted is He, says: “Do you enjoin righteousness upon people while forgetting yourselves, even though you recite the Book? Will you not reason?” (al-Baqarah 2:44).
In this connection the authentic collections relate that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“A man will be brought and cast into the Fire, and his intestines will spill out—i.e., his bowels will fall from his belly—and he will circle around them as a donkey circles its millstone. The inhabitants of Hell will gather around him and ask, ‘So-and-so, what has happened to you? Did you not used to enjoin good and forbid evil?’ He will reply, ‘Indeed, I used to enjoin good but did not practise it, and I forbade evil but committed it.’” (2)
Such is the state of those sinners and wretches who oppose the prophets. As for the leaders among the elect—those discerning scholars who fear their Lord unseen—their conduct is as the Prophet of Allah Shuʿayb declared: “I do not wish to differ from you in what I forbid you. I desire only to set things right, so far as I can” (Hūd 11:88) — that is, in all my affairs I seek nothing but rectification, in deed and word, to the utmost of my ability.