Surah al-Qasas (The Stories) 28 : 23

Explanatory Note

When he arrived at the wells of Madyan, he found there a large group of people drawing water [for their herds], and at some distance from them he found two women who were keeping back their flock. His long trek had taken him to Madyan, tired and exhausted. Yet the scene before him is one that a person with sound moral sense cannot condone. Moses sees many herdsmen and shepherds bringing their cattle and sheep to drink at the water, but two women stand aside, prevented from watering their flock. Those with a good sense of integrity and morality would have allowed the two women to water their sheep first and then leave before the men took care of their cattle. Despite his exhaustion, Moses, the stranger, could not accept what he saw. He stepped forward to ask the two ladies: “What is the matter with you two?”

They appraised him of their situation: “They said: We cannot water [our animals] until the herdsmen and shepherds drive home. Our father is a very old man.” As women, they could not fend for themselves in the midst of so many men. Furthermore, their father was an old man who could not compete with younger and stronger men. Moses’ sense of fairness could not abide this. He stepped forward to put things right. He watered their flock for them before the rest, as honourable people should have done in the first place. He does not stop to consider his own position first, as a runaway in a place where he knows no one and where he has no support. Yet nothing stops him from acting as the honourable man he is.