Verse. 3277

'Abdullāh Ibn 'Abbās / Muḥammad al-Fīrūzabādī

تفسير : (then there came unto him one of the two women) the youngest of the two, whose name was zipporah (saffurah), (walking shyly) with her hand on her face. (she said: lo! my father biddeth thee, that he may reward thee with a payment for that thou didst water (the flock) for us. then, when he came unto him) when moses went to yathron, the nephew of the prophet shu'ayb who had died before (and told him) told yathron (the (whole) story) of his escape from pharaoh and the rest of it, (he said) yathron said to him: (fear not! thou hast escaped from the wrong-doing folk) the people of egypt.

Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī

تفسير : god, exalted be he, says: then one of the two women came to him, walking bashfully — in other words, covering her face with the sleeve of her shirt, being shy of him — and said, ‘my father invites you, that he may pay you a wage for watering [our flock] for us’. he accepted her invitation, while inwardly he disapproved of accepting any wage, for it was as though she sought to remunerate him and as though he were of those who would want it [which he was not]. she walked in front of him but when the wind began to blow off her dress and reveal her legs, he said to her, ‘walk behind me and show me the way’, which she did. finally he came to her father, shu‘ayb, peace be upon him, who was sitting with some supper in front of him. he said to him, ‘sit and have some supper’. he [moses] said, ‘i hope that this is not [some sort of] compensation for having watered [their flock] for them? for we are people of a house and do not demand compensation for good deeds’. he [shu‘ayb] said, ‘no. it is [simply] a custom of mine and of my forefathers to be hospitable to guests and to offer them food’. thus, he [moses] ate and informed him of his predicament. god, exalted be he, says: so when he came to him and recounted to him the story (al-qasas is a verbal noun with the sense of al-maqsūs, ‘that which is recounted’), of his slaying of the egyptian and their intention to slay him and his fear of pharaoh, he [their father] said, ‘do not be afraid. you have escaped from the evildoing people’, as pharaoh had no authority over midian.