Tafsir of Al-Qasas 28:29

Ibn Marduwayh also narrated, through the path of Ali ibn Asim from Abu Harun from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, that a man asked him, "Which of the two terms did Moses fulfill?" He replied, "I do not know until I ask the Messenger of Allah (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)." So he asked the Messenger of Allah, who said, "I do not know until I ask Gabriel (peace be upon him)." He asked Gabriel, who said, "I do not know until I ask Michael (peace be upon him)." He asked Michael, who said, "I do not know until I ask the Exalted One (Ar-Rafi')." He asked the Exalted One, who said, "I do not know until I ask Israfil (peace be upon him)." He asked Israfil, who said, "I do not know until I ask the Possessor of Might (Dhu al-'Izzah), Glorified be His Majesty." Then Israfil called out with his intense voice, "O Possessor of Might, which of the two terms did Moses fulfill?" He replied, "The complete and better of the two: ten years."

Ali ibn Asim said: Whenever Abu Harun would narrate this hadith, he would say: "Abu Sa'id narrated to me from the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), from Gabriel, from Michael, from the Exalted One, from Israfil, from the Possessor of Might—Blessed and Exalted is He—that Moses fulfilled the complete and better of the two: ten years."

The "Fa" (in falamma) is said to be explanatory (fasiha), meaning: he concluded the contract, and Moses proceeded with what was required of him. So when he completed the term, { "and traveled with his family" }—it is said: towards Egypt with permission from Shu'ayb (peace be upon him) to visit his mother, brother, sister, and relatives. It is as if, peace be upon him, he was prompted to do so by the length of time since his departure and his strong assumption that his affair had been forgotten. It is also said: he traveled towards Jerusalem, and this is further from rumor and gossip.

{ "He perceived from the side of the Mount [at-Tur] a fire" }—meaning: he saw from the direction adjacent to the Mount, not from a portion of it, as is immediately suggested. The root of i'nas (perception/seeing), according to what is said, is sensation, thus it is more general than mere sight. Al-Zamakhshari said: It is clear vision about which there is no doubt; from this comes insan (pupil/human) of the eye, because things are clarified by it. And ins (humans) are named for their appearance, just as it is said that jinn are named for their concealment. It is also said that it is the perception of something by which one finds comfort (yu'nasu bihi).

{ "a fire" }: Some have maintained that what was perceived was a true light, but it was expressed as "fire" in consideration of Moses's belief. Some of the gnostics said: What was perceived was in the form of actual fire, but its reality was beyond the mount of the intellect, except that Moses (peace be upon him) thought it was the known fire.

{ "He said to his family, 'Remain here'" }—meaning: stay in your place. With him, peace be upon him, were—according to one opinion—his wife and a servant; the two are addressed in the plural form. According to another opinion, he also had his two sons with him, the elder named Gershom and the younger named Eliezer, born to him during his stay with Shu'ayb. This is consistent with the view that he had consummated his marriage before starting what was required of him. As for the view that he did not consummate the marriage until he had completed the term, it can only be reconciled by positing that he stayed for years after that, and then stayed another ten.

From Wahb, it is narrated that he had a son born to him on the road on the night he perceived the fire. In Al-Bahr, it is mentioned that he set out with his family and wealth in the winter, taking a path other than the main road for fear of the kings of the Levant. His wife was pregnant, and he did not know whether she would deliver by night or by day. He wandered in the wilderness, not knowing its paths, until the travel brought him to the side of the right-hand Western Mount on a dark, snowy, and extremely cold night. It is also said: out of jealousy for his family, he would accompany a caravan by night and depart from them by day, so he lost his way one day until night overtook him. His wife went into labor, so he struck his flint, but it failed to spark. He looked and saw a fire flickering in the distance, so he said, "Remain here," { "I have perceived a fire; perhaps I will bring you a 'jadhwah' from it with news" }—meaning: with news of the road, in that I might find someone there to inform me of it; for they had, as you heard, lost their way. The sentence is an interpolation in the sense of explaining the command.

{ "or a 'jadhwah'" }—meaning: a thick stick, whether it has fire at its tip, as in the saying: "And there was cast upon Qays a jadhwah of fire, intense in its heat and flame," or whether it does not, as in the saying: "Layla’s wood-gatherers spent the night seeking for her the best of wood, neither hollow nor rotten." Therefore, it was specified, as some researchers have said, by the words of the Exalted, { "of fire" }, and designated as the fire itself for emphasis, as if, through its clinging to the fire, it had transformed into fire. Al-Raghib said: A jadhwah is what remains of the wood after burning. To this effect is the saying of Abu Hayyan: "A stick containing fire without a flame."

Ibn Abi Hatim narrated from Ibn Zayd that he said: "It is a stick of wood containing fire." He and a group [of scholars] narrated from Qatada that it is the base of a tree on whose tip there is fire. It is said: In this case, "min" (from) is for the inception, and the intent by "fire" is that which he perceived. Most read it as jidhwa (with a kasra on the jim), while Al-A'mash, Talha, Abu Haywah, and Hamza read it with a damma.

{ "That you may warm yourselves" }—meaning: that you may get warmth and heat yourselves with it. This is evidence that they had been afflicted by cold.