Transliteration:( Wa lammaa tawajjaha tilqaaa'a Madyana qaala 'asaa Rabbeee ai yahdiyanee Sawaaa'as Sabeel )
55. It was purely due to the guidance of Allah Almighty. Because, neither was Hazrat Moosa (On whom be peace) aware about Midian, nor about the road towards it. It should be noted that Midian was very far place from where Hazrat Shuabe (On whom be peace) was staying. This place is about eight day’s journey from Egypt (during those days). This place was established by Midian bin Ebrahim (On whom be peace) and it was thus known as Midian. This place was outside the jurisdiction of the Pharoah. He was travelling without food or any guide or assistant, surviving on the leaves of trees without knowing where he was going.
56. This tells us that his face was towards Midian but his heart was towards the Creator of Midian.
The tafsir of Surah Qasas verse 22 by Ibn Kathir is unavailable here.
Please refer to Surah Qasas ayat 21 which provides the complete commentary from verse 21 through 24.
31. Both the Bible and the Quran agree that after leaving Egypt, the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) had gone to live in Madyan (Midian). But the Talmud tells the absurd story that Moses fled to Ethiopia and became a great favorite with the king there. After the king’s death the people made Moses their king and leader and gave him the widow of the king for a wife, but during the 40 years of his reign there he never had intercourse with his African wife. Then the queen of Ethiopia, who was a wife to Moses (peace be upon him) in name only, said to the people, “Why should this stranger continue to rule over you? He has never worshiped the gods of Ethiopia.†At this the people of Ethiopia deposed him and made him many rich presents and dismissed him with great honors. Then he came to Midian and met with the events being mentioned below. At this time he was 67 years old.
A clear proof of this story’s being absurd is that according to it Assyria (northern Iraq) in those days was under Ethiopia, and the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) and the Ethiopian king, his predecessor, had led military campaigns to crush the Assyrian revolts. Now anybody who has a little acquaintance with the history and geography can have a look at the map and see things for himself. Assyria could be under Ethiopian domination and have been attacked by the Ethiopian army only in case Egypt and Palestine and Syria had been under its subjugation, or the whole of Arabia under its sway, or, at least the Ethiopian navy so powerful as to have conquered Iraq across the Indian ocean and the Persian Gulf. History, however, does not support the view that the Ethiopians ever held sway over these countries, or their naval force was ever so powerful. This indicates how imperfect was the Israelites’ knowledge of their own history, and how the Quran corrects their errors and presents the true facts in their pure form. Nevertheless, the Christian and the Jewish orientalists are never ashamed of asserting that the Quran has plagiarized the Israelite traditions for its narratives.
32. The right path: The path that may take me to Midian safely.†It should be borne in mind that Midian in those days was outside Pharaoh’s empire. Egypt did not have control over the whole of the Sinai Peninsula but only on its western and southern parts. The Midianites who inhabited the eastern and western coasts of the Gulf of Aqabah were free from Egyptian influence and authority. That is why the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) had headed for Midian after leaving Egypt, because that was the nearest free and inhabited land. But to reach Midian he had to pass through Egyptian territories; avoiding the Egyptian police and military posts on the way. That is why he prayed to God to put him on the right track which should take him to Midian safely.
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