| This Surah (Revealed) Meccan, except verses 52 to 55, which are Medinese, and verse 85, which was
revealed at al-Juhfa during the Hijra; it consists of 88 verses, revealed after [sūrat] al-Naml.(Al-Qasas)
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| بِسْم ِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ | |
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Tafseer
Tā sīn mīm: God knows best what He means by these [letters].
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Tafseer
Those, namely, these signs, are the signs of the Manifest Book (the genitive
annexation conveys the [partitive] sense of min, âofâ [âverses from the Manifest Bookâ]), [the Manifest
Book] which reveals truth from falsehood.
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Tafseer
We will recount, narrate, to you [something] of the tale of Moses and Pharaoh
truthfully, for a people who believe, for their sake, since they are the ones to benefit from such [an
account].
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Tafseer
442 Truly Pharaoh had exalted himself in the land, the land of Egypt, and reduced
its people into sects, groups, to serve him, oppressing a group of them, namely, the Children of Israel,
slaughtering their sons, the newborn, and sparing their women, keeping them alive â for some of the [Egyptian] priests
had told him, âA new-born of the Children of Israel shall bring about the end of your kingdomâ.
Indeed he was of those who cause corruption, through [the use of] slaughter and otherwise.
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Tafseer
And We desired to show favour to those who were oppressed in the land, and to
make them exemplars (read aâimmatan, pronouncing both hamzas, or by replacing the second one with a
yāâ) whose good example would be followed, and to make them the inheritors, of Pharaohâs kingdom;
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Tafseer
and to establish them in the land, the land of Egypt and Syria, and to show
Pharaoh and Hāmān and their hosts (a variant reading has wa-yarā Firâawnu wa-Hāmānu wa-junūduhumā, âso that
Pharaoh and Hāmān and their hosts might seeâ, with all three [nouns] in the nominative) from them
that of which they were apprehensive, [that which] they feared of the new-born [Israelite] who would
bring about the end of their kingdom.
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Tafseer
And We revealed, by inspiration or in a dream, to the mother of Moses â who was
the said new-born; his sister was the only other person aware of his birth â âSuckle him, then, when
you fear for him, cast him into the waters, namely, the Nile, and do not fear, that he should drown, or grieve,
for being separated from him, for We will restore him to you and make him one of the messengersâ. She
suckled him for three months during which he never cried. She then began to fear for him and so she placed
him in a basket coated with pitch and made as a cradle for him on the inside. She then closed it and cast it
into the waters of the Nile at night.
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Tafseer
Then Pharaohâs folk, aids, picked him up, with him [still] in the basket, the
morning following that night â it was placed him in front of him [Pharaoh] and then opened and Moses was brought
out of it, sucking milk from his thumb â to be, at the end of the affair, an enemy, slaying their
menfolk, and a [cause of] grief to them, enslaving their womenfolk (a variant reading [for hazanan] is huznan, both
of which are alternative forms of the verbal noun, and it functions as an active participle, derived from
hazanahu, which is like ahzanahu, âhe caused him griefâ). Truly Pharaoh and, his minister, Hāmān, and
their hosts were sinners, that is, disobedient, and so they were punished at his [Mosesâs] hands.
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Tafseer
And Pharaohâs wife said, after he and his aids had resolved to slay him: he is,
âA joyous sight for me and you. Do not slay him. Perhaps he will be of benefit to us, or we will adopt him
as a sonâ, and so they obeyed her [wish]. And they were not aware, of the sequel to their affair with him.
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Tafseer
And the heart of Mosesâs mother, when she found out that they had picked him up,
became empty, of everything other than him. Indeed (in, softened from the hardened form, its
subject omitted, in other words [understand it as] innaha) she was about to expose him, that is, as being her
son, had We not fortified her heart, with patience, that is, We made it at peace, that she might be of the
believers, [of] those who have faith in Godâs promise (the response to [the conditional] lawlā, âhad â notâ, is
given by the preceding [statement]). 443
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Tafseer
And she said to his sister, Mary, âFollow himâ, in other words, follow where he
goes in order to find out his news. So she watched him from afar, from a distance, secretly, while they were
not aware, that she was his sister, or that she was [even] watching him.
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Tafseer
And We had forbidden him to [take to the breasts of] fostermothers from before,
that is to say, we prevented him from taking to the breasts of any suckling mother other than his
own mother. Therefore he would not accept the breasts of any of the foster-mothers brought for him. So
she, his sister, said, âShall I show you a household â having seen their affection for him â who will take care
of him for you, by having him suckled and so on, and who will act in good faith towards him?â (the
[suffixed] pronoun in lahu has been interpreted as referring to the king, as a response to them [when they asked
Mary how she could be sure]). Her suggestion was accepted. So she brought his mother and he took to her
breast. She explained to them that he had taken to her [breast] because of her pleasant scent and the
wholesome taste of her milk. Permission was given to her to breast-feed him in her own house and so she
returned with him, just as God, exalted be He, says:
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Tafseer
Thus We restored him to his mother so that her eyes might delight, in seeing him
[again], and not grieve, thereat, and that she might know that Godâs promise, to restore him to her, is
true; but most of them, that is, the people, do not know, about this promise, or of the fact that this was
his sister and the other was his mother. He [Moses] remained with her until he was weaned during which time she
was paid wages at one dinar per day. She took this because it was money from enemy territory (harbī).
She then brought him [back] to Pharaoh in whose household he was raised, as God recounts of him in
sūrat al-Shuâarāâ [Q. 26:18], Did we not rear you among us as a child, and did you not stay with us for years
of your life?
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Tafseer
And when he came of age, namely, at 30 or 33, and [then] was [fully] mature,
that is, when he reached the age of 40, We gave him judgement, wisdom, and knowledge, comprehension of
religious matters before he was sent as a prophet. And so, just as We rewarded him, do We reward those are
virtuous, to their own souls.
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Tafseer
And he, Moses, entered the city, Pharaohâs city, Memphis, having been absent
from it for a while, at a time when its people were oblivious, the time of the afternoon nap, and found therein
two men fighting, one of his own faction, namely, an Israelite, and the other of his enemies, in other
words, an Egyptian, who was exploiting an Israelite to carry firewood to Pharaohâs kitchen. So the one who
was of his faction called to him for help against the one who was of his enemies, and so Moses said to him,
âLeave him be!â, and it is said that he replied to Moses [thus]: âI am truly considering making you carry this
[firewood]!â. So Moses punched him, that is, he hit him with his fist clenched â he [Moses] was a
strong man with a powerful strike, and did away with him, that is, he killed him, but he had not intended
to kill him. He buried him in the sand. He said, âThis, killing of him, is of Satanâs doing, inciting my anger.
Indeed he is an enemy, to the son of Adam, a manifest misleaderâ, of him.
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Tafseer
He said, remorsefully, âMy Lord, I have indeed wronged myself, by killing him,
so forgive me!â So He forgave him. Truly He is the Forgiving, the Merciful, that is to say, the One Who has
always possessed, and will always possess, these two attributes.
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Tafseer
444 He said, âMy Lord, forasmuch as You have been gracious to me, with forgiveness,
protect me [so], I will never be a partisan, a supporter, of the criminalsâ, the disbelievers
henceforth, if you were to protect me.
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Tafseer
In the morning he was in the city, fearful, vigilant, waiting to see what would
happen to him [in reaction] from the side of the slain man; â when behold, the one who had sought his help
the day before cried out to him for help [again], asking for his help against another Egyptian. Moses said
to him, âClearly you are a trouble-maker!â, whose trouble-making is evident, judging by what you did
yesterday and today.
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Tafseer
But when (fa-lammā an: an is extra) he was about to strike the man who was an
enemy to both of them, to Moses and the one seeking his help, he, the one seeking help, supposing that
Moses was about to strike him, because of what he [Moses] had said to him, said: âO Moses, do you want to
slay me just as you slew a soul yesterday? You merely want to be a tyrant in the land, and you do not want
to be of the reformersâ. The Egyptian heard this and realised that the slayer had been Moses. Thus he
hurried off to Pharaoh to inform him of this. Pharaoh then ordered slaughterers to slay Moses, and they
set off in his direction.
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Tafseer
And a man, who was the [only] believer among Pharaohâs kinsfolk, came from the
outskirts of the city, hastening, walking fast, via a route quicker than theirs. He said, âO Moses, lo!
the council, of Pharaohâs folk, are conspiring, discussing [the means], to slay you. So leave, the city. Truly I
am speaking to you in good faithâ, in bidding you to leave.
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Tafseer
So he departed from it, fearful, vigilant, lest any of the pursuers catch up
with him, or [in the hope] that God might rescue him. He said, âMy Lord, deliver me from the evildoing peopleâ,
Pharaohâs people.
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Tafseer
And when he turned his face towards Midian, in the direction thereof â and this
[Midian] was the town of [the prophet] Shuâayb, eight dayâs journeying from Egypt, [so] named after
Midian son of Abraham; he [Moses] did not know the route to it â he said, âPerhaps my Lord will show me
the right wayâ, that is to say, which route to follow, in other words, the simplest route to it. God thus sent
forth to him an angel with a goat, which he [Moses] set off following towards it [the town].
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Tafseer
And when he arrived at the Water of Midian, [the name of] a well therein, he
found a group of people there watering, their flocks, and he found, besides them, two women holding back their
flock, from the water. He, Moses, said, to the two: âWhat is your business?â, that is, âWhat is the matter
with you, that you are not watering?â They said, âWe do not water [our flock] until the shepherds have
moved on (riâāâu, âshepherdsâ, the plural of rāâin) that is to say, until they have returned from the watering,
for fear of being crushed [by the throng], after which we go to water (a variant reading [for yasdiru, âmove
onâ] is the 4th form [subjunctive] yusdira, âto drive awayâ, meaning, until they [the shepherds] have
driven their flocks away from the waterâ) and our father is a very old manâ, unable to [come and] water.
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Tafseer
So he watered [their flock] for them, from another well nearby, by lifting a
rock from on top of it, which only ten men could have lifted; then he retreated to the shade, of an acacia tree
(samura), because of the extreme heat of the sun and he was hungry, and said, âMy Lord, indeed I am in
utter need of whatever 445 good, [whatever] food, You send down to meâ. The two women returned to their
father quicker than usual and so he asked them why [it was so]. They told him about the man who had
watered [their flock] for them. So he said to one of them, âSummon him to [come to] meâ.
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Tafseer
God, exalted be He, says: Then one of the two women came to him, walking
bashfully â in other words, covering her face with the sleeve of her shirt, being shy of him â and said, âMy
father invites you, that he may pay you a wage for watering [our flock] for usâ. He accepted her invitation,
while inwardly he disapproved of accepting any wage, for it was as though she sought to remunerate
him and as though he were of those who would want it [which he was not]. She walked in front of him
but when the wind began to blow off her dress and reveal her legs, he said to her, âWalk behind me and
show me the wayâ, which she did. Finally he came to her father, Shuâayb, peace be upon him, who was sitting
with some supper in front of him. He said to him, âSit and have some supperâ. He [Moses] said, âI hope that
this is not [some sort of] compensation for having watered [their flock] for them? For we are People of a
House and do not demand compensation for good deedsâ. He [Shuâayb] said, âNo. It is [simply] a custom of
mine and of my forefathers to be hospitable to guests and to offer them foodâ. Thus, he [Moses] ate and
informed him of his predicament. God, exalted be He, says: So when he came to him and recounted to
him the story (al-qasas is a verbal noun with the sense of al-maqsūs, âthat which is recountedâ), of his
slaying of the Egyptian and their intention to slay him and his fear of Pharaoh, he [their father] said, âDo not
be afraid. You have escaped from the evildoing peopleâ, as Pharaoh had no authority over Midian.
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Tafseer
One of the two women, the one that had been sent [by her father], either the
elder or the younger, said, âO my father, hire him, employ him in return for a wage, that he may tend our flock
instead of us. Surely the best [man] you can hire is the strong, the trustworthy manâ, in other words,
hire him on account of his strength and trustworthiness. He [Shuâayb] asked her about him and she told him,
as mentioned above, how he had lifted the rock off the well and that he had said to her, âWalk behind
meâ, in addition to his lowering his head when he realised that she was coming towards him, refusing to lift it
[until she left]. He [Shuâayb] therefore was keen to have him marry [one of his daughters].
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Tafseer
He said, âI desire to marry you to one of these two daughters of mine, either
the elder or the younger one, on condition that you hire yourself to me, that you are employed by me to tend
my flock, for eight years. And if you complete ten, that is, the tending of ten years, that, completion,
shall be of your own accord. I do not want to be hard on you, by making it [the marriage] conditional on ten
[years service]. God willing â [expressed] to seek [Godâs] blessing â you shall find me to be one of the
righteousâ, of those who fulfil their covenants.
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Tafseer
He, Moses, said, âThat, which you have said, is [settled then] between me and
you. Whichever of the two terms, the eight or the ten (the mā [in ayyamā, âwhichever of the twoâ] is
extra), in other words, the tending thereof, I complete, there shall be no injustice [done] to me, by demanding [of
me] to do more [tending]. And God is Guardian, Keeper or Witness, over what we, you and I, sayâ. The
contract was agreed in this way. Shuâayb bid his daughter to give Moses a staff with which to beat off
predatory beasts from his sheep â the staffs of the prophets were in his keeping. It was Adamâs staff, made from
the myrtle of Paradise, that fell into her hands and so Moses took it, with Shuâaybâs knowledge.
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