“And remember when Moses said unto his people, O my people, remember the favour of God towards you, since He hath appointed prophets from among you, and made you princes (masters of servants and other attendants), and given you what He hath not given any [other] of the peoples (as the manna and the quails and other things). O my people, enter the Holy Land which God hath decreed for you (namely Syria), and turn not back, lest ye turn losers.—They replied, O Moses, verily there is in it a gigantic people, of the remains of the tribe of ʾA′d, and we will not enter it until they go forth from it; but if they go forth from it, then we will enter.—Thereupon two men, of those who feared to disobey God, namely Joshua and Caleb, of the chiefs whom Moses sent to discover the circumstances of the giants, and upon whom God had conferred favour, and who had concealed what they had seen of the state of the giants, excepting from Moses, wherefore the other chiefs became cowardly, said unto them, Enter ye upon them through the gate of the city, and fear them not; for they are bodies without hearts; and when ye enter it, ye overcome; and upon God place your dependence, if ye be believers.—But they said, O Moses, we will never enter it while they remain therein. Therefore go thou and thy Lord, and fight: for we remain here.—Then Moses said, O my Lord, verily I am not master of any but myself and my brother: therefore distinguish between us and the unrighteous people.—God replied, Verily it (namely the Holy Land) shall be forbidden them forty years; they shall wander in perplexity in the land: and be not thou solicitous for the unrighteous people.—The land through which they wandered was only nine leagues in extent. They used to journey during the night with diligence; but in the morning they found themselves in the place whence they had set forth; and they journeyed during the day in like manner. Thus they did until all of them had become extinct, excepting those who had not attained the age of twenty years; and it is said that they were six hundred thousand. Aaron and Moses died in the desert; and mercy was their lot: but punishment was the lot of those. And Moses begged his Lord, when he was about to die, that He would bring him as near as a stone’s throw to the Holy Land: wherefore He did so. And Joshua was made a prophet after the forty [years], and he gave orders to fight against the giants. So he went with those who were with him, and fought against them: and it was Friday; and the sun stood still for him awhile, until he had made an end of fighting against them. ([Sūrah v. 23–29].)
“Ḳároon [or Korah] was of the people of Moses (he was the son of his paternal uncle, and the son of his maternal aunt, and he believed in him); but he behaved insolently towards them; for We had bestowed upon him such treasures that their keys were heavy burdens for a company of men endowed with strength, in number, as some say, seventy; and some, forty; and some, ten; and some, another number. Remember when his people (the believers among the children of Israel) said unto him, Rejoice not exultingly in the abundance of thy wealth; for God loveth not those who so rejoice; but seek to attain, by means of the wealth which God hath given thee, the latter abode [of Paradise], by expanding thy wealth in the service of God; and neglect not thy part in this world, to work therein for the world to come; but be beneficent unto mankind, by bestowing alms, as God hath been beneficent unto thee; and seek not to act corruptly in the earth; for God loveth not the corrupt doers. He replied, I have only been given it on account of the knowledge that I possess. For he was the most learned of the children of Israel in the Law, after Moses and Aaron. God saith, Did he not know that God had destroyed before him, of the generations, those that were mightier than he in strength, and who had amassed more abundance of wealth? And the wicked shall not be asked respecting their sins, because God knoweth them: therefore they shall be sent into the Fire without a reckoning. And Ḳároon went forth unto his people in his pomp, with his many dependants mounted, adorned with garments of gold and silk, upon decked horses and mules. Those who desired the present life said, O would that we had the like of that which hath been bestowed on Ḳároon in this world! Verily he is possessed of great good fortune!—But those unto whom knowledge of what God hath promised in the world to come had been given, said unto them, Woe to you! The reward of God in the world to come (which is Paradise) is better for him who believeth and worketh righteousness than that which hath been bestowed on Ḳároon in the present world; and none shall receive it but the patient in the service of God. And We caused the earth to cleave asunder and swallow up him and his mansion, and he had no forces to defend him, in the place of God, nor was he of the [number of the] saved. And the next morning, those who had wished for his place the day before said, Aha! God enlargeth provision unto whom He pleaseth of His servants, and is sparing of it unto whom He pleaseth! Had not God been gracious unto us, He had caused [the earth] to cleave asunder and swallow up us! Aha! the ungrateful for His benefits do not prosper! ([Sūrah xxviii. 76–82].)
“Remember, when Moses said unto his people (when one of them had been slain, whose murderer was not known, and they asked him to beg God that He would discover him to them, wherefore he supplicated Him), Verily God commandeth you to sacrifice a cow. They said, Dost thou make a jest of us? He said, I beg God to preserve me from being one of the foolish. So when they knew that he decidedly intended what he had ordered, they said, Supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may manifest to us what she is; that is, what is her age. Moses replied, He saith, She is a cow neither old nor young; but of a middle age, between those two: therefore do as ye are commanded. They said, Supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may manifest to us what is her colour. He replied, He saith, She is a red cow: her colour is very bright: she rejoiceth the beholders. They said, Supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may manifest to us what she is, whether she be a pasturing or a working cow; for cows of the description mentioned are to us like one another; and we, if God please, shall indeed be rightly directed to her. (In a tradition it is said, Had they not said, ‘If God please,’—she had not ever been manifested to them.) He replied, He saith, She is a cow not subdued by work that plougheth the ground, nor doth she water the field: [she is] free from defects and the marks of work; there is no colour in her different from the rest of her colour. They said, Now thou hast brought the truth. And they sought her, and found her in the possession of the young man who acted piously towards his mother, and they bought her for as much gold as her hide would contain. Then they sacrificed her; but they were near to leaving it undone, on account of the greatness of her price. (And in a tradition it is said, Had they sacrificed any cow whatever, He had satisfied them: but they acted hardly towards themselves; so God acted hardly towards them.) And when ye slew a soul, and contended together respecting it, (and God brought forth [to light] that which ye did conceal—this is the beginning of the story [and was the occasion of the order to sacrifice this particular cow,]) We said, Strike him (that is, the slain person) with part of her. So he was struck with her tongue, or the root of her tail, or, as some say, with her right thigh; whereupon he came to life, and said, Such-a-one and such-a-one slew me,—to the two sons of his uncle. And he died. They two [the murderers] were therefore deprived of the inheritance, and were slain. Thus God raiseth to life the dead, and showeth you His signs (the proof of His power), that peradventure ye may understand, and know that He who is able to raise to life one soul is able to raise to life many souls. Then your hearts became hard, O ye Jews, so as not to accept the truth, after that, and they [were] as stones, or more hard: for of stones there are indeed some from which rivers gush forth; and of them there are indeed some that cleave asunder and water issueth from them; and of them there are indeed some that fall down through fear of God; whereas your hearts are not impressed, nor do they grow soft, nor do they become humble. But God is not heedless of that which ye do: He only reserveth you unto your time. ([Sūrah ii. 63–69].)
“Remember when Moses said to his young man Joshua the son of Nun, who served him and acquired knowledge from him, I will not cease to go forward until I reach the place where the two seas (the Sea of Greece and the Sea of Persia) meet, or travel for a long space of time. And when they reached the place where they (the two seas) met they forgot their fish: Joshua forgot to take it up, on their departure; and Moses forgot to remind him; and it made its way in the sea by a hollow passage, God withholding the water from it. And when they had passed beyond that place, and proceeded until the time of the morning-meal on the following day, [Moses] said unto his young man, Bring us our morning-meal: we have experienced fatigue from this our journey. He replied, What thinkest thou? When we repaired to the rock to rest at that place, I forgot the fish, and none made me forget to mention it but the Devil; and it made its way in the sea in a wonderful manner.—Moses said, That (namely our loss of the fish) is what we were desiring: for it is a sign unto us of our finding him whom we seek. And they returned by the way that they had come, following the footsteps, and came to the rock. And they found one of Our servants (namely El-Khiḍr) unto whom We had granted mercy from Us (that is, the gift of prophecy in the opinion of some, and the rank of a saint according to another opinion, which most of the learned hold), and whom We had taught knowledge from Us respecting things unseen.—El-Bukháree hath related a tradition that Moses performed the office of a preacher among the children of Israel, and was asked who was the most knowing of men; to which he answered, I:—whereupon God blamed him for this, because he did not refer the knowledge thereof to Him. And God said unto him by revelation, Verily I have a servant at the place where the two seas meet, and he is more knowing than thou. Moses said, O my Lord, and how shall I meet with him? He answered, Thou shalt take with thee a fish, and put it into a measuring vessel, and where thou shalt lose the fish, there is he. So he took a fish, and put it into a vessel. Then he departed, and Joshua the son of Nun departed with him, until they came to the rock, where they laid down their heads and slept. And the fish became agitated in the vessel, and escaped from it, and fell into the sea, and it made its way in the sea by a hollow passage, God withholding the water from the fish so that it became like a vault over it: and when Moses’ companion awoke, he forgot to inform him of the fish.
“Moses said unto him [namely El-Khiḍr], Shall I follow thee, that thou mayest teach me [part] of that which thou hast been taught, for a direction unto me? He answered, Verily thou canst not have patience with me. For how canst thou be patient with respect to that whereof thou comprehendest not the knowledge?—He replied, Thou shalt find me, if God please, patient; and I will not disobey any command of thine. He said, Then if thou follow me, ask me not respecting anything: but be patient until I give thee an account thereof. And Moses assented to his condition. And they departed, walking along the shore of the sea, until, when they embarked in the ship that passed by them, he, El-Khiḍr, made a hole in it, by pulling out a plank or two planks from it on the outside by means of an axe when it reached the middle of the sea. Moses said unto him, Hast thou made a hole in it that thou mayest drown its people? Thou hast done a grievous thing.—(But it is related that the water entered not the hole.) He replied, Did I not say that thou couldst not have patience with me? [Moses] said, Chastise me not for my forgetfulness, nor impose on me a difficulty in my case.—And they departed, after they had gone forth from the vessel, walking on, until, when they found a boy who had not attained the age of knowing right and wrong, playing with other children, and he was the most beautiful of them in countenance, and he (El-Khiḍr) slew him, Moses said unto him, Hast thou slain an innocent soul, without his having slain a soul? Thou hast done an iniquitous thing.—He replied, Did I not say that thou couldst not have patience with me? [Moses] said, If I ask thee concerning anything after this time, suffer me not to accompany thee. Now hast thou received from me an excuse for thy separating thyself from me.—And they departed [and proceeded] until, when they came to the people of a city (which was Antioch), they asked food of its people; but they refused to entertain them: and they found therein a wall, the height whereof was a hundred cubits, which was about to fall down; whereupon he (El-Khiḍr) set it upright with his hand. Moses said unto him, If thou wouldst, thou mightest have obtained pay for it, since they did not entertain us, notwithstanding our want of food. El-Khiḍr said unto him, This shall be a separation between me and thee; but before my separation from thee, I will declare unto thee the interpretation of that which thou couldst not bear with patience.
“As to the vessel, it belonged to ten poor men, who pursued their business on the sea; and I desired to render it unsound; for there was behind them a king, an unbeliever, who took every sound vessel by force. And as to the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would transgress against them rebelliously and impiously: for, according to a tradition related by Muslim, he was constituted by nature an unbeliever, and had he lived he had so acted; wherefore we desired that their Lord should create for them a better than he in virtue, and [one] more disposed than he to filial piety. And God created for them a daughter, who married a prophet, and gave birth to a prophet, by means of whom God directed a people to the right way. And as to the wall, it belonged to two orphan youths in the city, and beneath it was a treasure buried, of gold and silver, belonging to them; and their father was a righteous man; and thy Lord desired that they should attain their age of strength and take forth their treasure through the mercy of thy Lord. And I did it not (namely what hath been mentioned) of mine own will, but by direction of God. This is the interpretation of that which thou couldst not bear with patience.” ([Sūrah xviii. 59–81].)
The following remarks are taken from Sale’s notes of al-Baiẓāwī and other commentators:—
“There is a tradition that Moses was a very swarthy man; and that when he put his hand into his bosom, and drew it out again, it became extremely white and splendid, surpassing the brightness of the sun.
“Moses had an impediment in his speech, which was occasioned by the following accident. Pharaoh one day carrying him in his arms when a child, he suddenly laid hold of his beard and plucked it in a very rough manner, which put Pharaoh into such a passion, that he ordered him to be put to death: but A′siyeh, his wife, representing to him that he was but a child, who could not distinguish between a burning coal and a ruby, he ordered the experiment to be made; and a live coal and a ruby being set before Moses, he took the coal and put it into his mouth, and burnt his tongue; and thereupon he was pardoned.—This is a Jewish story a little altered.
“It is related that the midwife appointed to attend the Hebrew women, terrified by a light which appeared between the eyes of Moses at his birth, and touched with extraordinary affection for the child, did not discover him to the officers, so that her mother kept him in her house, and nursed him three months; after which it was impossible for her to conceal him any longer, the king then giving orders to make the searches more strictly.