Mujāhid said, “He struck him with the full force of his palm.” Qatādah said, “Rather, he hit him with a staff that was in his hand.” The words, “so he finished him off,” mean that the man died from that single blow. The slain Egyptian was a polytheist who worshipped other than the Almighty, and Moses—peace be upon him—had not intended to kill him outright; he only meant to curb and restrain him. Even so, Moses declared:
“This is from Satan’s doing; indeed, he is an enemy who clearly leads astray. My Lord, I have surely wronged myself, so forgive me.” So He forgave him, for He alone is the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful. “My Lord, in gratitude for the favor You have bestowed upon me, I shall never again be a supporter of the criminals” (al-Qaṣaṣ 15–17).
The next morning he was in the city, fearful and watchful; and the one who had sought his help the day before cried out to him again. Moses said, “You are clearly a quarrelsome man.” When Moses was about to seize the one who was an enemy to both of them, the man cried out, “Moses, do you intend to kill me as you killed a man yesterday? You only want to become a tyrant in the land; you do not want to be one of those who set things right.” Then a man came running from the far side of the city and said, “Moses, the council is plotting against you to kill you, so leave; I am giving you sincere advice.” So he departed from it, fearful and vigilant, saying, “My Lord, save me from the wrongdoing people” (al-Qaṣaṣ 18–21).
Allah—exalted is He—informs us that Moses awoke in the city of Egypt afraid: apprehensive that Pharaoh and his chiefs might discover that the slain man whose case had been reported to them was in fact killed by Moses while he was defending a man from the Children of Israel. That would confirm their suspicion that Moses belonged to the Israelites, and grave consequences would follow. Thus, that very morning he walked through the city “fearful, watchful,” glancing about in every direction. While he was in that state, the same Israelite who had sought his help the previous day now cried out to him again—that is, he shouted for help against another man who was fighting him. Moses reproached him, blaming him for his constant trouble-making and quarrelling, and said, “You are clearly a misguided man.”
Moses then intended to seize the Egyptian, who was an enemy to both him and the Israelite, in order to restrain him and rescue the Israelite. But when he advanced toward the Egyptian, the latter cried out, “Moses, do you want to kill me as you killed a person yesterday? You only wish to become a tyrant in the land; you do not wish to be one of the reformers.”
Some scholars hold that these words were spoken by the Israelite himself, who had witnessed what Moses did the previous day. Seeing Moses approach the Egyptian—and thinking that Moses was coming toward him because of the earlier rebuke, “You are clearly a misguided man”—he blurted out those words and thereby exposed the incident of the day before. The Egyptian then went straight to Pharaoh and lodged a complaint against Moses; this is the view adopted by most commentators. Others maintain that the speaker was the Egyptian himself. When he saw Moses moving toward him, he became frightened and, realizing how fervently Moses was supporting the Israelite, concluded—either by conjecture or keen insight—that Moses must be the one who had killed the man the previous day, or perhaps he deduced it from something the Israelite uttered while shouting for help. Allah knows best.
In any case, word reached Pharaoh that Moses was the killer of the man who had died the previous day. Pharaoh sent men to seize him, but a well-intentioned man took a shorter route and hurried from the far end of the city, compassionately warning him, saying, “Moses, the council…"