“and our father is an old man,” meaning: we are unable to reach the well until the shepherds have departed because of our weakness, and we have taken on this task only because our father is frail and advanced in age.

Allah, exalted is He, then says, “So he watered for them.”

The exegetes (1) explain that when the shepherds finished drawing their water, they would roll a huge stone over the mouth of the well. The two women would then arrive and let their sheep drink from whatever water remained after the other flocks. On that day, however, Moses came, lifted the stone by himself, drew water for the women, gave their flock to drink, and then replaced the rock as it had been.

The Commander of the Believers ʿUmar (2) said: That stone could not be lifted except by ten men, yet Moses drew only a single bucketful (3) and it sufficed them. He then turned back to the shade.

They added that it was the shade of a samur tree (4).

Ibn Jarīr (5) transmits from Ibn Masʿūd that he saw it green and luxuriant (6), and Moses said, “My Lord, I am in desperate need of whatever good You may send down to me.”

Ibn ʿAbbās said: He traveled from Egypt to Midian eating nothing but herbs and leaves. He went barefoot until the soles of his feet peeled off from walking without shoes. Then he sat in the shade—he, the one chosen by Allah from among His creation—while his stomach clung to his back from hunger, and the greenness of the herbs could be seen through his belly. He was in need even of half a date.

ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib said: When he said, “My Lord, I am in desperate need of whatever good You may send down to me,” the woman heard him, and thereupon “one of the two came to him, walking modestly, and said, ‘My father is calling you so that he may reward you for watering for us.’ When he came to him and told him the story, he said, ‘Do not fear; you have escaped from the wrongdoing people.’ One of the two women said, ‘Father, hire him; truly the best one you can hire is the strong and trustworthy.’ He said, ‘I wish to marry you to one of these two daughters of mine on the condition that you work for me eight years; but if you complete ten, that will be of your own accord. I do not wish to burden you; you will find me, Allah willing, among the righteous.’ Moses replied, ‘That is a pact between me and you; whichever of the two terms I fulfill, there shall be no injustice against me. Allah is Witness over what we say.’” (al-Qaṣaṣ 25–28)

When Moses sat beneath the shade and said, “My Lord, I am in desperate need of whatever good You may send down to me,” she heard him