Surah al-A`raf (The Elevated Places) 7 : 87

Explanatory Note

This is indeed the fairest plan. Shu`ayb made every reconciliatory move and took his stand at the last position behind which he could not retreat an inch. He called on them to accept a plan of peaceful coexistence, with every party leaving the other to practise their religion and implement their faith, until God judged between the two. Needless to say, God is the fairest of all judges. His is the judgement that shows no favouritism whatsoever. But the tyrants do not accept that faith should have a following and that believers should form a community that rejects tyranny. The very existence of a community that submits totally to God, acknowledging no authority other than His, and implementing no code of living other than the one He has laid down represents a threat to the authority of those tyrants. Even if this community of believers should mind its own business, leaving the tyrants to God’s judgement, its existence is conceived as a threat. Tyranny will dictate that a battle is fought with the Muslim community, even though it prefers not to engage in such a battle. It is in the nature of things that the very existence of the truth is a source of trouble to falsehood, making a battle between the two inevitable. This is how God has ordained things. Hence, the unbelievers among the people of Shu`ayb rejected his offer and insisted that no mode of peaceful coexistence was acceptable to them.