Surah Al-Qasas 28:22-28 - Quran Translation Commentary

(28:23) Then, when he arrived at the waters of Madyan he found there a crowd of people watering (their flocks) and apart from them he found two women holding back (their flocks).³⁷ He asked, ‘What is the matter with you two?’ They said, ‘We may not water (our flocks) until the shepherds drive off (theirs); and our father is a very old man.’³⁸

(28:24) So he watered (their flocks) for them,³⁹ then he turned aside into the shade and said, ‘My Lord! Verily, whatever You send down to me of a good (thing), I am in need thereof.’⁴⁰

(28:25) Then came to him one of the two walking bashfully.⁴¹ She said, ‘My father invites you that he may reward you with the wage for that you watered for us.’⁴² Then, when he came to him,⁴³ and narrated to him the story, he said, ‘Fear not. You have escaped from an oppressive people.’⁴⁴

(28:26) Said one of them, ‘O my father, hire him; surely, the best one you can hire is a strong, trustworthy (person).⁴⁵

(28:27) He said,⁴⁶ ‘I intend to wed one of these my two daughters to you⁴⁷ on (condition) that you serve me eight years.⁴⁸ But if you complete ten, then, that will be (as a favor) from you.⁴⁹ And I do not wish to press hard on you. You shall surely find me, Allah willing, of the righteous.’⁵⁰

(28:28) He said, ‘Be that between me and you. Whichsoever of the two terms I fulfill, there will be no injustice to me. And Allah is a Witness⁵¹ to what we say.⁵²

Commentary

35. Various commentators, especially Majid and Mawdudi, have speculated the route Musa could have taken when leaving Egypt: none perhaps wholly accurate. We reproduce one possibility from Yusuf Ali, not for its certainty, but for its brevity: “East of Lower Egypt, for about 300 miles, runs the Sinai Peninsula, bounded on the south by the Gulf of Suez, and on the north by what was the Isthmus of Suez, now cut by the Suez Canal. Over the Isthmus ran the highroad to Palestine and Syria, but a fugitive could not well take that road, as the Egyptians were after him. If he could, after crossing the Isthmus, plunge into the Sinai desert, east or south-east, he would be in the Midianite territory, where the people would be Arabs and not Egyptians. He turned thither, and again prayed to Allah for guidance.”

“Here,” Mawdudi adds a useful point, “the Biblical account is in agreement with the Qur’anic one in that both state that after leaving Egypt, Moses went to Midian. The Talmud, however, relates the absurd story of Moses fleeing to Abyssinia and becoming a great favourite of the king there.. Moses was then (at the time of departure from Abyssinia: au.) 67 years old (as stated by Polano, though not Talmud. See also The Jewish Encyclopaedia, vol.9, p. 48: ed.).” Or perhaps this story needs to be connected with another, viz. Musa & Israelites had gone back to Egypt after the drowning of Fir’awn. May be there is a mix-up in the sequence of events. See note no. 191 of surah no. 7 for further details.

36. The translation reflects the understanding of Ibn `Abbas who said that Musa did not know the way to Madyan and hence prayed in these words (Ibn Jarir, Kashshaf, Razi and others). Sa`id b. Jubayr mentioned that the journey (on foot) between Egypt and Madyan was eight days long (Kashshaf, Razi, Ibn Kathir and others).

Majid adds: “’And because the public roads were watched, he took the flight through the desert through a route his enemies could not suspect he would travel.’ (Ant. II, 11: 1). ‘The route he took was probably very much the same as that by which he afterwards led the Israelites to Mount Sinai. It avoided the Egyptian parts and settlements.’ (Rawlinson, Moses, His Life and Times’ p. 186).”

37. That is, restraining their flock from rushing towards the well.

38. So, they had to wait until everyone had left by the end of the day, and be content with whatever water was left at the bottom of the well (Au.).

Although, a more becoming behavior on the part of those who are endowed with nature’s good qualities was that the girls should have been allowed to draw water first and drive away their flock before men would start (Sayyid).

Yousuf Ali beautifully fills in the gaps that the verses leave: “Here is a pretty little idyll, told in the fewest and most beautiful words possible. Moses arrives at an oasis in the desert, weary and travel worn, with his mind full of anxiety and uncertainty owing to his recent experiences in Egypt. He was thirsty and would naturally seek water. At the well or spring he found shepherds (or perhaps goat-herds) watering their flocks. As a stranger it was not for him to thrust himself among them. He waited under the shade of a tree until they should finish. He noticed two damsels, also waiting with their flocks, which they had come to water. His chivalry was roused. He went at once among the goat-herds, made a place for the flocks of the damsels, gave them water, and then resumed his place in the shade. They were modest maidens, and had given him in three Arabic words the key of the whole situation. ‘abu-na shaikhun kabirun' our father is a very old man, and therefore cannot come to water the flocks; we therefore do the work; we could not very well thrust ourselves among these men.’

39. This demonstrates that “perfection” (kamiliyyah) does not negate services to the people (Thanwi), in fact, it is a sign of perfection by itself (Au.).

Most commentators report that Musa drew water from the same well from which the shepherds were drawing. A few say that upon inquiry he was led by the girls to another well that had a huge rock on its mouth. Musa removed it, watered their flock and replaced the lid (Shawkani). The report is in `Abd b. Humayd and Ibn al-Mundhir (Alusi).

40. No human mind could ever think of expressing in such a short sentence, in such absolute sense, the extreme privation that Musa was suffering (Au).

It is said that Musa was in such a state that all that he wished by his supplication was a simple meal (Ibn Jarir).

His supplication demonstrates that the “perfect” are never tired of seeking Allah’s blessings, big or small, as against the “pseudo perfect” who evince total independence of material needs, in fact, spurn them when sent their way (Thanwi).

It is reported of Ibn Mas`ud: “I rode on my camel for two days until I was in Madyan. I inquired about the tree under which Musa had rested. I found it a lush green tree full of leaves. My hungry camel rushed to it and began to feed on it, which it did for an hour, and then vomited. I prayed for Musa and moved on” (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir). In fact, it is reported that Ibn Mas` ud also visited the tree (at Toor) from which Allah had spoken to Musa (Ibn Kathir).

41. The Qur’an has no romantic tales. But a little phrase, “tamshee `ala-istihya’” throws open several avenues of thought to those who have had the experience of watching simple men and women of the country-side living out their lives in complete innocence and supreme natural joy. Gone into oblivion are those days and those scenes that Wordsworth drew in his pastoral poems, perhaps never to return. Among the commentators, Yusuf Ali stands alone in courage and imagination, to fill the colors in the Qur’anic sketches. The reader is advised to read all the notes of this context in his work.

`Umar (ra) is reported to have said (in a Sahih report: Ibn Kathir) that the girl had gone to Musa covering her face with her shirt-sleeve, bashful, unlike the forward and fearless women who are ever ready to dash out of their homes into the streets: on any pretext or no pretext (Ibn Jarir).

42. This demonstrates that acceptance of wages, that were not intended for a good deed, does not nullify a good intention, especially when such acceptance is a means of preventing ill consequences (Thanwi).

A man of keen sentiments, Yusuf Ali could not fail to feel like several characters of the story must have felt at the time the episode took place. He writes, boldly, but cautiously: “Nothing could have been more welcome than such a message, and through such a messenger. Moses went of course, and saw the old man. He found such a well-ordered patriarchal household. The old man was happy in his daughters and they in him. There was mutual confidence. They had evidently described the stranger to him in terms which made his welcome a foregone conclusion. On the other hand Moses had allowed his imagination to paint the father in something of the glorious colours in which his daughters had appeared to him like an angelic vision. The two men got to be friends at once. Moses told the old man his story, - who he was, how he was brought up, and what misfortunes had made him quit Egypt. Perhaps the whole household, including the daughters, listened breathlessly to his tale. Perhaps their wonder and admiration were mingled with a certain amount of pity - perhaps with some more tender feeling in the case of the girl who had been to fetch him. In any case the stranger had won his place in their hearts. The old man, the head of the household, assured him of hospitality and safety under his roof. As one with a long experience of life he congratulated him on his escape. ‘Who would live among unjust people? It is as well you are free of them!’”

43. Although some of the earliest commentators have identified this person with Shu`ayb the Prophet, (but not Ibn `Abbas: Razi), it is very unlikely that the two were one in view of the fact that Shu`ayb the Prophet appeared at least four hundred years before Musa. Further, the Qur’an did not name the person as Shu`ayb in this context. As for the ahadith that speak of him in such context, none of them is trustworthy (Ibn Kathir).

“I have earlier expressed my opinion that it must or could have been Shu`ayb, but now I am convinced that it was not Suh`ayb the Prophet for, Shu`ayb’s people were destroyed. It is only those who believed in him that were spared. But, the behavior of the shepherds at the well, who did not allow the girls to water their flock first, is not something expected of the first generation of believers” (Sayyid).

44. Fir`awn’s kingdom did not include Madyan lands (Ibn Jarir from the Salaf).

45. Brief and precise, the sentence cannot be improved upon: all you need when you hire a man is strength (ability to perform), and honesty. The two qualities assured, you can entrust your work and forget all about it (Zamakhshari).

It has been said, by Ibn `Abbas and others, that this was said by one of the two (daughters) whose flocks Musa had watered. “What makes you think he is strong and trustworthy?” her father asked. She replied that she judged his strength from the manner in which he had drawn the water and his trustworthiness from the fact that he had never looked at them twice and had asked her to walk behind him when she had gone to fetch him. Some others have said that she judged his strength from his feat of lifting the rock off the mouth of the well which only a group of men could ordinarily do (Ibn Jarir, Ibn Kathir, Kashshaf).

The arrangement between the two was that if Musa strayed as they walked down to her house, she would throw a stone to indicate the right direction (Ibn Kathir).

Yusuf Ali does not rule out another implication: “Strong and trustworthy: Moses had proved himself to be both, and these were the very qualities which a woman most admires in the man she loves.”

46. It should not be imagined that the entire conversation, from the time Musa met Shu`ayb, to this point, took place in one session (Au.).

47. In his re-portrayal of the scene, Yusuf Ali fills in the gaps with details that most readers would agree could be the missing links, “A little time passed, and at length the father broached the subject of marriage. It was not for the fugitive to suggest a permanent tie, especially when, in the wealth of this world, the girl’s family was superior, and they had an established position, while he was a mere wanderer. The father asked if he would marry one of the daughters and stay with them for at least eight years, or if he liked, ten years, but the longer term was at his option. If he brought no dower, his service for that period was more than sufficient in lieu of dower. The particular girl intended was no doubt tacitly settled long before, by the mutual attraction of the young hearts themselves. Moses was glad of the proposal, and accepted it. They ratified it in the most solemn manner, by appealing to Allah. The old man, knowing the worth of his son-in-law, solemnly assured him that in any event he would not take advantage of his position to be a hard task-master or to insist on anything inconsistent with Moses’s interests, should a new future open out to him. And a new and glorious future was awaiting him after his apprenticeship.”

Sayyid echoes the words of Qurtubi in essence when he elaborates: Thus, in this simple and frank manner that is devoid of any twist of the tongue, the man proposed his daughter to Musa: without any fuss, or feelings of shame or awkwardness. For, he is proposing the building up of a husband-wife relationship and establishment of a home. It is not something that has room for hesitation, vacillation, or far-fetched gestures nor the kind of artificiality that is to be found in societies that have lost their naturalness, having accepted false values and traditions. Such societies prevent the father or custodian from proposing to someone with whose religion, morals and personality he feels satisfied as matching with those of his daughter or sister. They prescribe that it is the man or his representative alone who should make the proposal to the girl’s father or custodian and it should never be done from the girl’s side. The deviation to be noted in such societies is that its young men and women mix together freely, talk freely, and move about freely without any intention of marriage; but when it comes to marriage, then suddenly a pall of unnatural embarrassment descends, and a wall of artificiality is erected, preventing a clear and frank discussion of the proposal.

In contrast, at the time of the Prophet, fathers offered their daughters for marriage to those they approved. Sometimes, even a woman offered herself for marriage. And the affairs were conducted in perfect frankness, cleanliness, and good manners, unimpaired by the thoughts of shame or dishonor. `Umar offered his daughter to Abu Bakr, then to `Uthman, and then complained to the Prophet perhaps hoping that Allah might decree a husband for his daughter better than the two he had proposed. A woman offered herself to the Prophet – who refused – and then she left it to him to find a suitable match for her.”

48. He was to serve him looking after his flocks and attend to related works (Ibn Jarir and others).

“In patriarchal society it was not uncommon to have a marriage bargain of this kind conditional on a certain term of service. In this case the episode conveys two lessons. (1) A man destined to be a messenger of Allah is yet a man, and must pass through the ups and downs of life like any other man: only he will do it with more grace and distinction than other men. (2) The beautiful relations in love and marriage may themselves be a preparation for the highest spiritual destiny that may await a Messenger of Allah. A woman need not necessarily be a snare and a temptation: she may be the understanding help-mate that the Lady Khadija was to the holy Prophet (Yusuf Ali).

This kind of marriage, in which wages are offered by the male as mahr is allowed among the Hanafiyyah (Shabbir), but on certain conditions (Shafi`). There is a close example of this in the hadith. A man had nothing to offer as mahr, so the Prophet (saws) told him to teach the bride some verses of the Qur’an in lieu, to which the woman agreed (Qurtubi). Abu Hanifa’s personal opinion however, was that such an agreement is not allowable in Islam now. Further, this Qur’anic precedence cannot be quoted since in this case, Musa actually promised to serve Shu`ayb, while the mahr is a woman’s own right, and not that of her father (Shafi`).

A contemporary commentator thinks however, that the whole debate as conducted by the scholars of the Ummah over the issue, is, in his words, “meaningless.” He lets his imagination loose, and constructs a scenario, which he perhaps thought could not have occurred to others before him. In the heat he failed to notice the clear implications of the verse in question, viz. service to the father-in-law was a clause of the marriage contract (Au.).

49. Although all of them weak, but severally they strengthen the report that of the two terms, Musa completed what was more becoming of him, that is, ten. We do not have a trustworthy hadith in this context, but this was the opinion of Ibn `Abbas, as reported in Bukhari (Ibn Kathir). Mujahid however maintained that altogether he served twenty years (Ibn Kathir, Alusi). If Musa was in his early twenties, which seems to be probable, then, it is quite likely that he stayed twenty years before thinking of returning to a land, where dangers lurking for him must have fizzled out over this long period of absence. Indeed, it is possible that he might have heard that the Fir`awn who had brought him up was dead and that another had taken his place (Au.).

In this there is close affinity with our own Prophet’s mission. He left Makkah in fear, but came back eight years later to subdue it (Shabbir), and emptied it of pagans, just like Egypt was emptied of the pagans in ten years time (Muwaddih).

50. “Here again,” writes Mawdudi, “the Israelites have done woeful injustice to their most illustrious Prophet, their greatest benefactor and hero.. According to another Jewish tradition, mentioned in The Jewish Encyclopaedia: ‘On his arrival at Midian Moses told his whole story to Jethro, who recognized him as the man destined to destroy the Egyptians. He therefore took Moses prisoner in order to deliver him to Pharaoh .. Moses was imprisoned in a deep dungeon in Jethro’s house, and received as food only small portions of bread and water. He would have died of hunger had not Zipporah, to whom Moses had before this captivity made an offer of marriage by the well, devised a plan by which she no longer went out to pasture the sheep, but remained at home to attend to the household, being thereby enabled to supply Moses with food without her father’s knowledge. After ten (or seven) years, Zipporah reminded her father that he had at one time cast a man into the dungeon, who must have died long ago, but if he were still living he must be a just man whom God had kept alive by a miracle. Jethro went to the dungeon and called Moses, who answered immediately. As Jethro found Moses praying, he really believed that he had been saved by a miracle, and liberated him … and gave him the virtuous Zipporah as his wife.’” (Vol.9, pp. 48-9).

51. Literally, Trustee (Au.).

52. With this example of Musa before him, how can any Muslim, reduced to a state of discomforts, after the plenty he once possessed, complain of the vicissitudes of time? Or, agree to live among an oppressive or un-Islamic people, for reasons of a materially rich, but spiritually barren life? One may also note the goodness in the heart of a future Prophet. Just out of the palace, he marries a plain Bedouin shepherdess without any qualms, in order to be able to follow, as commentators have pointed out, a virtuous life, and to demonstrate that the love of the world had not touched the heart of someone brought up in luxuries (Au.).