The Quran

Preface

إِذ تَمشي أُختُكَ فَتَقولُ هَل أَدُلُّكُم عَلىٰ مَن يَكفُلُهُ ۖ فَرَجَعناكَ إِلىٰ أُمِّكَ كَي تَقَرَّ عَينُها وَلا تَحزَنَ ۚ وَقَتَلتَ نَفسًا فَنَجَّيناكَ مِنَ الغَمِّ وَفَتَنّاكَ فُتونًا ۚ فَلَبِثتَ سِنينَ في أَهلِ مَديَنَ ثُمَّ جِئتَ عَلىٰ قَدَرٍ يا موسىٰ

Yusuf Ali

“Behold! thy sister goeth forth and saith, ?shall I show you one who will nurse and rear the (child)??###¹ So We brought thee back to thy mother, that her eye² might be cooled and she should not grieve. Then thou didst slay³ a man, but We saved thee from trouble, and We tried thee in various ways. Then didst thou tarry a number of years with the people of Midian.⁴ Then didst thou come hither as ordained, O Moses!

We may suppose that the anxious mother, after the child was floated on the water, sent the child’s sister to follow the chest from the bank and see where and by whom it was picked up. When it was picked up by Pharaoh’s own family and they seemed to love the child, she appeared like a stranger before them, and said, “Shall I search out a good wet nurse for the child, that she may rear the child you are going to adopt?” That was exactly what they wanted. She ran home and told her mother. The mother was delighted to come and fold the infant in her arms again and feed it at her own breast, and all openly and without any concealment.
The mother’s eyes had, we may imagine, been sore with scalding tears at the separation from her baby. Now they were cooled: a phrase meaning that her heart was comforted.
Years passed. The child grew up. In outward learning he was of the house of Pharaoh. In his inner soul and sympathy he was of Israel. One day, he went to the Israelite colony and saw all the Egyptian oppression Under which Israel laboured. He saw an Egyptian smiting an Israelite, apparently with impunity. Moses felt brotherly sympathy ard smote the Egyptian. He did not intend to kill him, but in fact the Egyptian died of the blow. When this became known, his position in Pharaoh’s household became impossible. So he fled out of Egypt, and was only saved by God’s grace. He fled to the Sinai Peninsula, to the land of the Midianites, and had various adventures. He marries one of the daughters of the Midianite chief, and lived with the Midianites for many years, as an Egyptian stranger. He had many trials and temptations, but he retained his integrity of character.
See last note. After many years spent in a quiet life, grazing his father-in-law’s flocks, he came one day to the valley of Tuwa underneath the great mountain mass of Sinai, called Tur (in Arabic). The peak on the Arabian side (where Moses was) was called Horeb by the Hebrews. Then was fulfilled God’s Plan: he saw the fire in the distance, and when he went up, he was addressed by God and chosen to be God’s Messenger for that age.