Ash-Shu'ara 143: “Verily, I am a trustworthy Messenger for you.”

İnnî lekum resûlun emîn. Know that I am a trustworthy messenger sent to you, says the Prophet Salih. Yes, the Prophet Salih, addressing his people: O my people, know that I am a trustworthy messenger sent to you. That is, believe me; I too am one of you, one of your brothers. But the Owner of the worlds did not create these worlds and then leave them idle. What does He say? To bring you out of darkness into light, He gave me the title of messenger. And I am conveying the command of the One who created us to you. These worlds have an Owner. The One who created these worlds does not tell us: eat and drink here, copulate like animals and, well, just live and be gone.

What does He say? Know the blessings I have given. Know that I created you, and give thanks to Me, He says. He wants nothing else from us, he says. He wants nothing else. Yes. And I, he says, believe me, am a trustworthy messenger to you. That is, I am a prophet, he says. The Prophet Salih speaks this way because, given what his people were doing, they would fall into wrongdoing and would be (?) toward their own selves — that is what he saw. Yes. That their deeds in the world would go to waste; but if they followed him, their deeds would be accepted in Allah's sight and they would win the hereafter — for this he said: I am to you a trustworthy messenger.

Indeed, the Prophet Salih was himself of the people of Thamud. Just as his heart could not bear their being dragged into disaster, as a prophet he was also charged with conveying Allah's command. For this reason, pitying them and speaking from the heart, so that he could draw these people to what is right, he said: I am a trustworthy messenger to you.