PROPHET MUSA (A.S.) AND DAUGHTERS OF PROPHET SHU'AYB (A.S.)

Jan 30, '13 12:20 PM for everyone

The story of Prophet Musa and the daughters of Prophet Shu‘ayb is a good guideline for us. After Musa fled Egypt and reached Madyan, the Qur’an (28:23-28) says:

And when he came to the watering well of Madyan, he found on it a group of men who were drawing water, and he saw besides them two women holding back their flocks.

He went to the two ladies and asked: “What is the matter with you that you are holding back your flock?” They said, “We cannot draw water until the shepherds move away with their sheep from the water well.” Then as if to answer an unspoken question that ‘why you, as ladies, are doing this job which should be done by the men in your family,’ they continued: “and our father is a very old man so he cannot do this himself.”

On realizing the modesty of the ladies who did not like to mingle with strange men, Musa offered to help them and he watered their sheep for them, and then went back to the shade for resting. Since he was hungry and tired, he prayed: “My Lord! Surely I stand in need of whatever good You may sent down to me.”

When the two daughters of Shu‘ayb went back home and narrated the incident, he asked one of them to call Musa so that he may thank him and pay him for the help.

Then, one of the two women came to him walking modestly. She said, “My father invites you so that he may recompense you with the wage of drawing water for us.” She led the way. Musa said to her that let me go forward and you walk behind me and guide me from the back “because we of the household of prophets do not look at the back of women.”

Once they reached to Shu’ayb’s house, Musa narrated his problem of how he fled from Fir’awn. Shu’ayb said, “Do not be afraid, now you are safe from the unjust people.”

One of the girls said, “O my father, since we do not have a young man in the family, employ him to work for you; surely the best person that you can employ is the one who is strong and trustworthy. This man has both qualities.” Shu’ayb asked his daughter that “you know about his strength because he helped in watering the sheep but how do you know that he is also trustworthy?” She described how Musa asked to walk ahead of her; that reflected his modesty and chastity.

And so Prophet Shu’ayb then offered the hand of one of his daughters to Musa and they got married3.

We can easily deduce the following principles from this story:

• No free mixing and mingling of men and women who are not mahram to one another. According to the great jurist of the last century, Sayyid Ka~zim al-Yazdi, “Mingling of men and women is makruh”4

• Ladies may, whenever necessary, step outside of their homes and participate in the socio-political-economic spheres of society but it must be done with modesty (haya’).

• Even in permissible interaction, haya’ must be observed in talking to and inter-acting with a non-mahram person, as well as in controlling their glances towards non-mahram men or women5.

_____Mutahhari, Mas’alatu ’l-Hijab, Arabic translation by al-Khalili (Tehran: al-Bi‘tha, 1407) p. 246.

2Mutahhari, Mas’alatu ’l-Hijab, p. 243. The statement “the crowd observed in some of our holy shrines” refers to the pre-revolutionary era of Iran when the area around the actual shrines was not segregated but now there is screen separating the men from the women.

3An Explanatory Translation of the Qur’an, vol. 4. Please note that the words in italics are explanatory remarks added to clarify the meaning.

4Al-Yazdi, S. Ka~zim, al-‘Urwatu ’l-Wuthqa, vol. 2 (Beirut: Mu’assasa al-A‘lami, 1988/1409) p. 805 with annotations from all the contemporary mujtahideen and none of them have written any dissenting remarks on this view. The fatwa of Sayyid al-Yazdi is based on the reliable hadith narrated by Ghiya~th bin Ibra~him from Imam as-Sa~diq (a.s.) who said, “Amiru ’l-Mu’mineen (a.s.) said, ‘O People of Iraq! I have been informed that your women rub shoulders with men on the streets – do not you feel ashamed?’ (al-Hurr al-‘A~mili, Wasa~’ilu ’sh-Shi‘ah, vol. 14, p. 174.)

Also see the transcript of the late Ayatullah al-Khu’i’s lectures by Muhammad Taqi al-Khu’I, Maba~ni ’l-‘Urwati ’l-Wuthqa, vol. 1, p. 115; Sayyid Muhsin al-Hak¢m, Mustamsaku ’l-‘Urwah, vol. 14 (Qum: Makbatu ’l-Mar‘ashi, 1404) p. 54-55. 5Also see verse 24:30-31.

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