Al-Qasas · Makki · ayah 23 of 88

Al-Qasas 28:23

وَلَمَّا وَرَدَ مَآءَ مَدْيَنَ وَجَدَ عَلَيْهِ أُمَّةً مِّنَ ٱلنَّاسِ يَسْقُونَ وَوَجَدَ مِن دُونِهِمُ ٱمْرَأَتَيْنِ تَذُودَانِ ۖ قَالَ مَا خَطْبُكُمَا ۖ قَالَتَا لَا نَسْقِى حَتَّىٰ يُصْدِرَ ٱلرِّعَآءُ ۖ وَأَبُونَا شَيْخٌ كَبِيرٌ

“And when he came to the water [i.e., well] of Madyan, he found there a crowd of people watering [their flocks], and he found aside from them two women holding back [their flocks]. He said, "What is your circumstance?" They said, "We do not water until the shepherds dispatch [their flocks]; and our father is an old man."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Arriving starved and hunted at Madyan's well, Musa notices two women holding back their flock at the crowd's edge, and asks them why.

A reflection

He found the crowd, and then he found the edge

The ayah uses the verb 'found' twice, and the second finding is the point.

Wajada ʿalayhi ummatan: he found at the water a crowd of people, watering. Anyone arriving would have seen that. Then, wa-wajada min dūnihim: and he found, apart from them, two women holding back their flock.

Min dūnihim is a small phrase with a lot of geography in it. Two linguistic commentaries read it as 'in a place lower than theirs'. Another reads it as the side of the well he came in from. Either way, the women were not in the picture most people would see. They were below it, or behind it, or beside it.

Now remember who is doing the noticing. Two ayat earlier, Musa left Egypt afraid, watching over his shoulder (28:21). He has walked to Madyan with no provisions. He has every reason to look only for water, food and safety. A frightened, starving man is usually the least observant person at a well.

Yet he saw them. One commentary marvels at exactly this. His resolve, it says, did not miss that chance for good, despite exhaustion, worn-out footwear and hunger. An early historian, quoted in another commentary, says that seeing their weakness, he felt mercy for them, and fear on their behalf.

Picture a man stepping off a night coach at six in the morning. He has not slept, and he has a job interview in three hours. Across the station concourse, an elderly woman is trying to lift a heavy case onto the escalator. Twenty people stream past her. He is the one who stops.

It is not that the others are cruel. They are simply looking at what they came for. Musa came for water, and found someone else's thirst.

This is a quality worth praying for. Crisis narrows the eyes, and narrowed eyes see only their own need. The person who still sees the edge, while standing in his own emergency, has a wide heart.

The ayah does not tell us he was rewarded for it. Not yet. It only shows us what he looked at first.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.