قَالَ يَـٰقَوْمِ أَرَءَيْتُمْ إِن كُنتُ عَلَىٰ بَيِّنَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّى وَرَزَقَنِى مِنْهُ رِزْقًا حَسَنًا ۚ وَمَآ أُرِيدُ أَنْ أُخَالِفَكُمْ إِلَىٰ مَآ أَنْهَىٰكُمْ عَنْهُ ۚ إِنْ أُرِيدُ إِلَّا ٱلْإِصْلَـٰحَ مَا ٱسْتَطَعْتُ ۚ وَمَا تَوْفِيقِىٓ إِلَّا بِٱللَّهِ ۚ عَلَيْهِ تَوَكَّلْتُ وَإِلَيْهِ أُنِيبُ
Qaala yaa qawmi ara'aitum in kuntu 'alaa baiyinatim mir Rabbee wa razaqanee minhu rizqan hasanaa; wa maaa ureedu an ukhaalifakum ilaa maaa anhaakum 'anh; in ureedu illal islaaha mastata't; wa maa tawfeeqeee illaa billaah; 'alaihi tawakkaltu wa ilaihi uneeb
He said, "My people, consider this: if I stand on clear evidence from my Lord, and he has provided me with good provision from himself, why would I go behind your backs to do what I forbid you? I want only to set things right, as far as I am able. My success rests with God alone — in him I trust, and to him I turn."
Shu'ayb answers a challenge to his motives by staking his own conduct on it: the case for what he asks of Madyan rests on his taking none of the exemption for himself. His closing clause turns on tawfiq, being granted success by God rather than achieving it, and it became the formula generations of Muslim writers used to end a book or a lesson. He names repair as his whole aim and bounds it in the same breath, as far as he is able.