Tafheem-ul-Quran - Abul Ala Maududi

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Tafheem-ul-Quran - Abul Ala Maududi translation for Surah Al-Qasas — Ayah 15

28:15
وَدَخَلَ ٱلۡمَدِينَةَ عَلَىٰ حِينِ غَفۡلَةٖ مِّنۡ أَهۡلِهَا فَوَجَدَ فِيهَا رَجُلَيۡنِ يَقۡتَتِلَانِ هَٰذَا مِن شِيعَتِهِۦ وَهَٰذَا مِنۡ عَدُوِّهِۦۖ فَٱسۡتَغَٰثَهُ ٱلَّذِي مِن شِيعَتِهِۦ عَلَى ٱلَّذِي مِنۡ عَدُوِّهِۦ فَوَكَزَهُۥ مُوسَىٰ فَقَضَىٰ عَلَيۡهِۖ قَالَ هَٰذَا مِنۡ عَمَلِ ٱلشَّيۡطَٰنِۖ إِنَّهُۥ عَدُوّٞ مُّضِلّٞ مُّبِينٞ ١٥
Once he entered the city at a time when its people were heedless,1 and he encountered two men fighting, one of whom belonged to his own people and the other to his foes. Now the man belonging to Moses' own people cried out to him for help against the man from the foes, and Moses struck him with his fist2 and finished him. Moses said: "This is an act of Satan. Surely he is an enemy who openly misleads."3
Footnotes
  • [1] Qira’at: Shuʻba, Hamza, Al-Kesa’i, Yaʻqub and Khalaf read it as: “Whoever He spares on that day—then He has surely had mercy on him . . .”
  • [2] It might be the early morning, or midday in summer, or night in winter, when the roads were deserted and there was all quiet in the city. The words “entered the city” indicate that the royal palaces were situated outside the capital, away from the common population. The words used are “entered the city” and not “came out in the city”, because the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) lived in the royal palace.
  • [3] The word wakaza in the original means both giving a slap and giving a blow. We have adopted “Moses gave a blow” for the reason that a blow can cause death but not a slap.
  • [4] A grammatical shift from 2nd person to 3rd person.
  • [5] The Arabic word used is aslamwhich means to become Muslimby submitting to God.
  • [6] One can imagine the state of utter remorse and confusion in which the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) uttered these words when he saw the Egyptian fall down after receiving the blow and breathe his last. He had no intention to murder, nor is a blow struck to kill, nor can one expect that a healthy person would die on receiving a blow. That is why the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) exclaimed: “This is the work of Satan! He has made me do this in order to work some great mischief, so that I am accused of killing an Egyptian while defending an Israelite, and a violent storm of anger and indignation is aroused in the whole of Egypt not only against me but the whole Israelite community.” In this connection, the Bible gives a different version from the Quran. It declares the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) to be guilty of willful murder. It says that when Moses saw an Egyptian and an Israelite fighting, “He (Moses) looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, He slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.” (Exodus 2: 12). The same is the version of the Talmud also. Now anybody can see how the Israelites brand the characters of their elders with infamy and how the Quran exonerates them. The verdict of common sense also is that a wise and discreet person, who was to become a great Prophet in the future, and who had to give man a great code of law and justice, could not be such a blind nationalist that seeing a member of his own community fighting with a man of the other community, he would be so infuriated that he would kill the other person willfully. Evidently, it could not be lawful to kill the Egyptian only for the sake of rescuing an Israelite from his tyranny.