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fa-lammā qaḍā mūsā l-ʾajala wa-sāra bi-ʾahlihī ʾānasa min jānibi ṭ-ṭūri nāran qāla li-ʾahlihi mkuthū ʾinnī ʾānastu nāran laʿallī ʾātīkum minhā bi-khabarin ʾaw jadhwatin mina n-nāri laʿallakum taṣṭalūna
So when Moses completed the term and set out with his family, he descried a fire on the side of the mountain. He said to his family, ‘Wait! Indeed, I descry a fire! Maybe I will bring you some news from it, or a brand of fire so that you may warm yourselves.’
— Ali Quli Qarai
Surah Al-Qasas - Verse 29
29. “So when Moses had fulfilled the term, and he journeyed with his family, he observed a fire in the direction of Mount Tur. He said to his family: ‘Tarry you here; verily I observe a fire. Perhaps I shall bring you news of it, or a brand of the fire, so that you may warm yourselves’.”
The Arabic term /’anastu/ means to observe something in which there is intimacy and peace. The word /jaŏwah/ means ‘a piece’, and the Qur’anic phrase /tastalun/ is derived from /saly/ which means ‘to be heated by fire’. Hadrat Musa had addressed his wife with plural form of Arabic pronoun, in terms such as /’umkuu/, /’atikum/, /la‘allakum/ and /tastalun/. It is perhaps for the reason that during the ten years that Moses was living with his wife he got a child or children.
It is understood from the sentences:
and
and also the sentence which says:
that Moses (as) has traveled by night. It was a cold and dark night during the time when Moses lost his way, too. Here we reach the seventh scene of the story life of Moses (as). No one exactly knows how Moses spent that term of ten years, but certainly that term was among the best years of Moses’ lifetime. It was some wholesome, sweet and peaceful years when he became prepared for a great mission. Indeed, it was necessary for Moses (as) to pass a ten-year-term in strangerhood and beside a great prophet. He had to be a shepherd so that if the habit of living in a castle had left any effect on his thought and spirit, it would have been washed off entirely. Moses must be among some poor people in order to understand their pain and be prepared for struggling against rich tyrants.
On the other hand, Moses ought to have a long time for contemplation upon the secrets of creation and for self- improvement. Where was it for him better than the desert of Madyan? And where was it better than the house of Shu‘ayb for him to remain? The mission of an arch-prophet is not so simple that it can be easily undertaken. It can be said that, next to the Prophet of Islam (S), from one point of view, the mission of Moses (as) among the Divine prophets on the earth put an end to the captivity of a large nation, and he wiped out the traces of the culture of slavery from their spirit, all of which were not so easy.
It is written in Torah, as well as the Islamic narrations, that Shu‘ayb had promised Moses to give him the lambs which were born with a special colour, in order to appreciate Moses’ troubles. By chance, in the last year, when Moses intended to say good-by with Shu‘ayb and return to Egypt, all or most of the lambs were born with the same specialty and Shu‘ayb willingly gave all of them to Moses, too.2 It is obvious that Moses did not suffice to be a shepherd until the end of his life, though being at the presence of Shu‘ayb was very enjoying for him. He ought to hasten to help his people who were captured in the chains of captivity and ignorance.
He ought to put an end to the injustices in Egypt, to break the idols, to abase the despots, and to elevate the oppressed by the help of Allah. An innate feeling encouraged Moses for this journey. At last, Moses gathered his furniture, provision, and sheep and set out for the journey. However, the application of the Arabic word /’ahl/ (family) mentioned in numerous verses of the Qur’an, shows that, besides his wife, Moses had a child (or children) with him in that journey. Some Islamic narrations verify this meaning, and in Torah, Exodus, it has been stipulated. Moreover his wife was pregnant at that time.
When he was coming back, he lost the way, and perhaps it was for the reason that he went a by-way so that he might not be seized by the grips of the Syrian oppressors. However, the Qur’an says:
There is not anything mentioned in the verse about the situation of Moses’ wife, but it is generally accepted by the commentaries and narrations that she was pregnant and at that time she felt the pain of delivery, and Moses was also anxious from this point of view.
Footnotes