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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.


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