The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Shu`ayb (Jet...
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."