Sacred Texts
Islam
Index
Previous
Next
The Marriage of Jethro's Daughter and Moses
What is agreeable among the nations and also the muslim scholars is that
Moses married the daughter of Jethro even though that quran did not mention
that clearly, but it was mentioned by the speech of the old man, but it
assured by the way of the Household of Muhammad (PUH) that the marriage
did take place between Moses and the daughter of Jethro, and he did take
care of the cattles of Jethro and stayed in Midian all of that while he
was in the house of Jethro, and it might be the first thing he ever did
when he went out of Egypt to Midian and he went to Jethro by inspiration
and it is something written in the knowledgement of God, the Exalted, since
the world of atom as it is true for the rest of things that exist upto
the doomsday. His marriage took place with one of Jethro's daughters, and
her name as mentioned was Sofayrâ'(Zipporah), so his relation was
not with "Yeþrun" the nephew of Shu`ayb (Jethro here) as mentioned
by some people and that the two women are his daughters [Jethro, or Yethro
is a close name to Jethro and might even be the same, but since Torah mention
this name as to be the father-in-law of Moses and in Islam Shu`ayb is the
father-in-law of Moses, I will keep calling him Jethro, but you have to
take the responsiblity of understanding that there are differences between
the Arabic name and the Hebrew one and between Quran and Torah!], and not
with Yiþri who was the leader of Midian, and not with a faithful
man of Shu`ayb's [will be called Jethro here later on, but notice they
are probably not the same person] followers and he is the father of the
two women, and there is no other clue that makes us neglect the daughter
of Jethro (Shu`ayb), and our scholars mentioned that and even considered
it something natural and had not been discussed, for they understand the
case here completely and the truth is what they said and that the marriage
took place between Moses and one of Shu`ayb's daughter.
For this we say that when Moses reached the house of Jethro and he
talked to him and calmed him down. Then one of his daughters said: O father,
hire him to take care of our sheeps for he is strong and trustworthy, and
it is probable that her father asked her about his strength and his faith
and how did she knew about them, she said: his strength I knew when I saw
him in his trial to water for us and I saw no man stronger than him while
watering, or his faith, I knew that when you sent me as a messanger to
bring him to you, for when he knew I am a woman he kept his eyes into the
ground and did not look at me until I said your message to him and then
he said to me: walk behind me and guide me to the way, and so no one would
do this unless a faithful man, thus then the old man asked Moses to serve
him by taking care of his cattles for eight years with some wage, and he
decided then to let him marriage one of his daughters for some dowry, and
then he said it frankly to him saying: I want to let you marry one of my
daughters, and Moses accepted and married his daughter Sofayrâ' (Zipporah)
with a certain dowry and with her agreement without a doubt and he asked
him to take care of the flocks for eight years with a certain wage, and
if he completed them to ten years then it is for his own sake and he is
not obliged to do so, and thus this condition was written in the marriage
agreement between the two, and Moses had nothing to do other than to accept
and he had the choice to do so for the period of time that he desires and
since that time Moses had been the son-in-law of Jethro and his cattles
shepherd.
It is mentioned that the name of Moses' wife was Sofayrâ' and
it is the most famous one, and some said her name is Saffurah [Saffurah
is exactly what you would read in Hebrew in Torah, keeping the original
old Hebraic pronunciation in mind], and Quran did not mention that, and
God said: One of the two women said: O my father! Hire him! For the best
(man) that thou canst hire in the strong, the trustworthy. He said: Lo!
I fain would marry thee to one of these two daughters of mine on condition
that thou hirest thyself to me for (the term of) eight pilgrimages. Then
if thou completest ten it will be of thine own accord, for I would not
make it hard for thee. Allah willing, thou wilt find me of the righteous.
He said: That (is settled) between thee and me. Whichever of the two terms
I fulfil, there will be no injustice to me, and Allah is Surety over what
we say(Al-Qasas:26-28). They say that Moses did complete the mission for
ten years.
It is mentioned by the prophet (PUH), that Moses (PUH) when wanted
to depart and leave Jethro (PUH) he asked his wife to ask her father to
give her some of his sheeps to live by, so he gave her what his sheeps
gave birth to and had a different color from his own sheeps, he said: no
one sheep passed over unless Moses did strike it with his stick and she
gave birth to many colors (spotted sheeps as Jethro said) and it gave birth
to two or three for every sheep, and none of them had any weakness nor
any sickness nor their breasts were small or missing some of its parts,
and it is mentioned that the prophet (PUH) said to his followers: when
you open up the lands of Shem you will find some of the rest of these sheeps
still and they are the Samarian.
In a tale, when Moses (PUH) finished the appointed period of time,
he said to Jethro: I must go back to my lands and my mother my household,
so what I have owned from you? Then said Jethro: whatever sheep that is
born and has a piebald color then it is for you - until the narrator then
said - and the sheeps at that time did not give birth unless for piebald
sheeps, so when a year passed, Moses took his wife and whatever he had
from Jethro and drove his cattles, and when he wanted to go out he said
to Jethro: give me a stick to be with me, and at that time Jethro had all
the sticks for all the prophets and collected them in a special place,
so then Jethro said to him: go to this store and take a stick from the
sticks there, and when he went inside one stick that belonged to Noah and
Abraham jumped over him and went into his hand so he took it out, and when
Jethro saw him going out with it he said to him: go inside again and take
another, and so he did but it jumped again into his hand and so it did
many times. When Jethro saw that he said to him: go with it, for God made
it for you. He then went out to Egypt, and when he went far away and at
night time the weather got so cold and dark, so then Moses looked at a
fire from a far, so he approached it and saw that it was a tree with a
fire on it, so when he went to the fire to take some of it it fell down
and he got scared and ran away and the fire got back to the tree, he looked
back at it then after and saw it went back it to where it was so he got
back to take some of it but it fell back again so he ran away and got back
and looked back and saw it went back to the tree, so then he went back
to it for the third time and it fell back on him and he ran away and did
not get back to it again then he heard the calls of God: O Moses! Lo! I,
even I, am Allah, the Lord of the Worlds(Al-Qasas:30), then said Moses:
what is your clue? Then the Lord said to him: what is that in your right
O Moses? He said: my stick, He said then: throw it, so he did and it turned
to a snake and Moses got scared of it and ran away, so God called him and
said: take it back and do not be afraid you are in safe, and put your hand
in your pocket and it will turn white with no misshaping, while Moses was
a tan man, and when he did that the whole world around him lightened up,
so God said to him then: these are two clues from your Lord to the pharaoh,
then said Moses: My Lord! Lo! I killed a man among them and I fear
that they will kill me. My brother Aaron is more eloquent than me in speech.
Therefor send him with me as a helper to confirm me. Lo! I fear that they
will give the lie to me(Al-Qasas:33-34), God said then: We will strengthen
thine arm with thy brother, and We will give unto you both power so that
they cannot reach you for Our portents. Ye twain, and those who follow
you, will be the winners(Al-Qasas:35). They say when Moses talked to God
and He sent him to Egypt, he went without a weapon or food and he had his
enough only by hunting and by the herbs of the ground. When he approached
Egypt, God inspired to his brother Aaron telling him that Moses is approaching
and telling him that He made him the assistor of Moses and a messanger
with him to the pharaoh, and ordered him to go on Saturday and it was the
first day of Ðul-Hijjah [12th month in Islamic lunar calendar and month
of pilgrimage] in disguise to the bank of the Nile to meet Moses, and so
he did and they met on the bank of the Nile before the sunrise and then
all went into Egypt to their house and there was their mother and the rest
of their family and all were so glad to see him again.
It is attributed to the prophet (PUH) that he said in a speech: Moses
was bounded to Jethro and he stayed with him for the period that they agreed
on, so when the maximum period of time passed and then he went away from
Midian with his family to Egypt with his sheeps and cattles and his wife
was in her last month of pregnancy, so he went in the deserts of the lands
of Shem avoiding the cities and towns because of the kings in them, so
he went along without guidance until he reached the right western slope
of the Mount in a cold night of winter and it was so dark and the sky began
to send its lightning and rains, and his wife had the pains of birth, then
Moses tried to get some fire but he could not, so he got buffled and wandered
around and meditated through the near and far, and in that situation he
saw from the side of the mount a fire, as he thought, so he said to his
family: Wait! I see a fire afar off. Peradventure I may bring you a brand
therefrom or may find guidance at the fire, meaning someone to guide me
to the right way, for he lost his way, and when he approached it he saw
a great light from the heaven to a great tree, and they differed in the
type of that tree, some said it was buckthorn and some said it was blueberry,
so when Moses saw that great light he got buffled and afraid for he saw
a great fire without smoke and burning from the core of a green tree, and
the more the fire increases the more greenish the tree gets, so when he
got closer to it he got scared and got back, but then he remembered his
need for the fire so he got closer again and it got closer to him and then
he was called from the side of the mountain, from the blessed spot from
the tree: O Moses, he looked and did not find anyone, then he was called:
I, even I, am Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, so when he heard that he knew
that He is his Lord so he got closer, and when he got closer and heard
the call and saw that greatness his heart beats went faster and also his
tongue and he was alive as well as dead, so God then sent to him an angel
to strengthen him, so when he got his power back he was called again: take
off thy shoes, for lo! thou art in the holy valley of Tuwa, then God said
to him to calm him down more: And what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?
He said: This is my staff whereon I lean, and wherewith I bear down branches
for my sheep, and wherein I find other uses..etc(Taha:17-18). They say
that when he asked for permission from Jethro to go back to Egypt and then
going to the valley of Tuwa, he had a son in one night of winter that was
so cold and harsh, and it was a night of Friday [in lunar calendar, the
new day begins with night and not day, so Friday's night would mean the
night of Thursday and the beginning of Friday], and he lost his way and
his cattles spreaded all over, and while he was in that condition he saw
a fire from the side of the mountain so he said to his family: stay here
for I saw a fire..etc, and his purpose for getting the fire was to help
him against coldness or to find guidance by it to Egypt, and when he approached
they say that he saw a white fire inside a green tree..etc, and this meaning
had been mentioned in a lot of versions of this story.
Next: Moses' Stick and Its Deeds