Topic: Early Life Of

28:8-9.

Important Words:

In ما یوحی (an important revelation), ما being مصدریة turns the verb following it into an infinitive and imparts to it an intensiveness of meaning. Thus the expression ما یوحی means, an important revelation or what it was necessary to be revealed at that time.

28:9.

Important Words:

For التابوت see 2:249.

عینی (My eye). عین means, (1) the eye; (2) look or view; (3) the people or inmates of a house or dwelling; (4) brothers from the same father and mother; (5) protection or honour (Lane). The expression علی عینی means, before my eyes, or, under my protection. See also 11:38.

تصنع (be reared) is derived from صنع. They say صنع الشیء i.e. he made the thing. صنع الفرس means, he looked after the horse. صنع ابنته means, he properly brought up his daughter. صنع (sun‘un) means, to do a thing properly and well. اصطنع الشیء means, he ordered the thing to be prepared for him. اصطنعه means, he taught him and trained and brought him up. اصطنع عندہ صنیعة means, he did him a favour. اصطنعه لنفسه means, he chose him for himself. اصطناع means, to mend or reform a thing thoroughly and well (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

As Moses was to have been entrusted with the great and difficult task of delivering a people held in bondage for long by a cruel and powerful monarch, it was necessary that he should have received the requisite training for the great mission under royal tutors and teachers. So it was in fulfilment of this divine plan that he found his way into Pharaoh’s own house.

The reference in the verse is to the Biblical narrative. See Exod. 2:1-10.

The expression فلیلقه is in the imperative mood and signifies command, meaning, We commanded that the river should cast it on to the bank.

28:12-13.

28:14.

26:15; 28:16, 34.

Important Words:

قدر (standard) is inf. noun from قدر (qadara). قدرت الشیء means, I measured the thing; computed or determined its quantity, measure, size, value, worth, bulk, proportion, extent, amount, limit or number. قدر (qadrun) or قدر (qadarun) is the quantity, quantum measure, magnitude, size, bulk, proportion and extent, of a thing. They say جاء علی قدر i.e. it came according to measure or as it may be said, he came up to the standard (Aqrab, Mufradat & Lane). See also 15:61.

Commentary:

In what a wonderful way did God fulfil the promise He made to Moses’ mother (when He commanded her to cast him into the river) that he would be restored to her (28:8)! God so managed the whole affair that the baby was soon again in the loving arms of his mother. It is in this way that God demonstrates not only His existence, but also His knowledge and shows His supreme control over all things and it is events like these that inspire a living faith in the hearts of God’s loving and sincere votaries. And it was that living faith which made Moses’ mother cast her baby into the river which was amply rewarded by Moses being restored to her very soon.

The words فتناک فتوناً (We tried thee with various trials) mean that Moses was made to pass through the crucible of trials and tribulations so that his mettle might be tested, and after passing out of these ordeals with flying colours he might be declared fit to be endowed with God’s great gifts and favours.

Midian or Madyan is the name of a town on the east side of the Gulf of ‘Akabah. The name is connected with that of the tribe of Midianites. In the 6th century Ya‘qubi speaks of its position in a district rich in springs, gardens and date-groves. Istakhri describes from his own observation the spring in the town from which Moses watered the flocks of Shu‘aib. It was then covered by a house which had been built over it. The town had then shown signs of gradual decay and decline. In the 12th century Idrisi says, "It is an unimportant little trading centre with scanty resources." In the 14th century Abul-Fida saw that it was in ruins. In recent times it has been visited by Ruppell, Burton and Musil. The extensive ruins which the Arabs call Maghair Shu‘aib after the cave-tombs lie about 16 miles east of the port of Makna, in the southern part of the valley of Al-Bad’ which is rich in streams and palms and other trees. According to Burton the whole district between 29° 28΄ and 27° 40΄ is called Ard Madyan (Enc. of Islam under "Madyan").

The town lay on the trade route from Medina to Syria and caravans going to Syria or Egypt passed through it.

The sojourn of Moses among the people of Midian fulfilled yet another divine plan. As he was destined to live with the Israelites in the deserts and forests of the valley of Sinai, he was made to become used to a hard life by living for several years in Midian.

20:39.

Commentary:

The preceding seven verses had spoken of Moses’ mission and by implication had referred to the mission of the Holy Prophet and in fact to the mission of every Prophet of God. From this verse, however, begins the actual story of Moses.

Whereas Moses was cast into the river by his mother to escape being killed by the people of Pharaoh, the Holy Prophet’s mother had to entrust him, while yet a child, to the care of a poor wet-nurse, to whom all the well-to-do families of Mecca had refused to entrust their babies on account of her poverty.

20:40.

Important Words:

التقطه (picked him up) is derived from لقط which means, he picked it up, took it up from the ground. التقط الشیء means, he picked up the thing; he stumbled upon it unexpectedly without seeking it. لقیته التقاطا means, I met him unexpectedly (Lane & Aqrab).

The particle ل in لیکون (that he might become) is called لام العاقبة and denotes result and consequence, as in the well-known Arabic couplet:

لدو اللموت وابنوا للخراب

فکلکم یسیر الی تباب

i.e. bear children that they should die and build houses that they should fall into ruins, for all of you are marching towards destruction. Thus the first part of the verse would mean, "And the family of Pharaoh picked him up with the result that ultimately he became an enemy and a source of great grief and sorrow for them."

Commentary:

God’s ways indeed are inscrutable. Pharaoh did not know that the very child upon whom he had lavished so much care and love will one day prove an instrument of punishment for him in the hands of Destiny because he had flouted and defied Divine commandments and had held the Israelites in bondage and had tyrannized over them for a long time.

Important Words:

فارغا (free from anxiety) is derived from فرغ which means, it was or became empty, void, devoid; he died. فرغ له means, he made him or it the object to which he directed himself. فارغ means, vacant, devoid of or free from care or anxiety or disquietude (Lane & Aqrab).

Commentary:

The heart of Moses’ mother became free from care or anxiety because of the consolation and assurance given to her by Divine revelation referred to in v. 8 above. The pronoun ہ in به may refer either to Moses or to the matter concerned. In the first case the expression ان کادت لتبدی به would mean that Moses’ mother was so much pleased with Moses having been restored to her that out of joy she was on the point of declaring that the child belonged to her. In the second case the meaning would be that if God had not restrained her, she almost had told people about the whole affair—how she had received a Divine revelation and how in pursuance of it she had put the child into the river and so on.

Important Words:

قصیه (follow him up) is derived from قص. They say قصه i.e. he cut it; or he clipped it. قص أثرہ means, he followed, or followed after, his track, or footsteps, in pursuit; he endeavoured to trace or track him; he endeavoured to trace him by degrees, or by night or at any time (Lane & Aqrab). See also 7:177 & 12:4.

20:41.

12:23; 46:16.

Commentary:

Moses was fully equipped with temporal as well as divine knowledge. Having been brought up in the house of a powerful monarch of the time he must have had the best tutors to teach him the current sciences. His physical development must also have been perfect as is apparent from 28:16; and he must have been inspired by noble ideals. As God had marked him out for a great destiny, he was endowed with wisdom and spiritual knowledge in a very large measure. By the time Moses had attained maturity he was a محسن i.e. a constant doer of good deeds.

20:41; 26:20.

Important Words:

وکزہ (struck him with his fist) means, he struck or beat him; he beat or struck him with his fist; he pushed or impelled or repelled him; he goaded him (Lane).

Commentary:

Being of a very noble nature and having been inspired by high ideals, Moses was always ready to help weak and oppressed people and so when a poor and weak Israelite sought his help against an arrogant and cruel Egyptian, he at once went to his rescue.

The expression, "this is of Satan’s doing," according to Arabic idiom means that some evil thing has happened, i.e. "Satan had caused an Egyptian and an Israelite to fight and I had to come to the assistance of the oppressed Israelite which resulted in an evil thing i.e. the death of a person." Or the words might have been addressed to the dead Egyptian meaning, "this is the outcome of your satanic deed," i.e. "your death is the result of your own wickedness and transgression." The fact that Moses used no lethal weapon and only repelled the Egyptian or at best struck him with his fist shows that the latter’s death was accidental. Clearly there was no intention on Moses’ part to cause it.

The Quran has not mentioned the wicked deed of the Egyptian to which Moses refers in this verse but from Jewish Encyclopedia we know that the said Egyptian had forced an Israelite woman to commit adultery with him and that was indeed a devilish deed. It apparently led to the quarrel referred to in the verse and ultimately to Moses’ interference and the death of the Egyptian (Jew. Enc. under "Moses").

Important Words:

ظلمت (I have wronged my soul) is derived from ظلم which means, he did wrong; he acted unjustly or tyrannically; he put a thing in a wrong place; he made one to suffer loss or detriment. ظلمه also signifies, he imposed upon him a burden that was beyond his power or ability to bear; he exposed himself to danger (Lane, Aqrab & Mufradat). See also 2:36, 52 & 17:60.

Commentary:

Moses realized that in trying to help the poor Israelite he had happened to kill the Egyptian and thus had exposed himself to a great danger and had taken upon himself a burden which apparently he did not have the power to bear. So he prayed to God to protect him from the evil consequences that might flow from his accidentally killing a member of the ruling race.

Commentary:

The verse shows Moses as saying, "My Lord! Thou hast always been Gracious to me, so in my gratitude to Thee for Thy favour, I promise that I will always help the oppressed as I did on the last occasion, and will never take sides with the oppressors." Or it may mean, "My Lord, since Thou hast given me an opportunity to help an oppressed man and thus hast done me a great favour, so in gratitude for Thy favour I will always help the poor and the oppressed." Or the verse may mean, "My Lord, since Thou hast been always kind and gracious to me, how can I be a helper and supporter of the oppressors?"

Commentary:

Moses in this verse seems to reproach the man who called him for help by saying to him, "you are a foolish fellow and not being able to realise the consequences of your actions you become readily involved in trouble." The words do not mean, as is generally misunderstood, that Moses regarded the man as an offender.

Commentary:

The words "who was an enemy to both of them," show that the man referred to was an Egyptian. But if he was an Israelite as the Bible says then he must have been in league with the Egyptians and must have reported the previous day’s incident to the authorities and thus was an enemy both to Moses and the Israelite who called Moses for help.

Commentary:

The implied reference in the verse is to the counsel that the leaders of Mecca had held to kill the Holy Prophet. But whereas Moses was informed of the designs of the Egyptian chiefs by a well-wisher of his, as the verse under comment says, the Holy Prophet was made aware of the evil designs of the Quraishite leaders against him by God Himself (8:31).

26:22.