with the final consonant in the jussive form.

“When your sister went about and said, ‘Shall I direct you to someone who will take charge of him?’ Thus We restored you to your mother, so that her eyes might be comforted and she would not grieve. And you killed a man, but We delivered you from distress; and We tested you with many trials. Then you remained for years among the people of Midian, and then you came at the appointed time, O Moses.” (40)

“When your sister went about”: her name was Maryam, seeking news of him. “And said, ‘Shall I direct you to someone who will take charge of him?’” That is, to a woman who would nurse him and take him into her care. This was because he would not accept the breast of any woman. When his sister said this to them, they replied, “Yes.” So she brought his mother, and he accepted her breast. This is the meaning of Allah Most High’s words:

“Thus We restored you to your mother, so that her eyes might be comforted” by seeing you, “and she would not grieve”: that is, so that her sorrow might depart from her.

“And you killed a man.” Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “He killed a Copt who was a disbeliever.” Kab al-Ahbar said: At that time, he was twelve years old. “But We delivered you from distress”: that is, from the distress and anguish caused by the killing. “And We tested you with many trials.” Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “We tested you thoroughly.” Al-Dahhak and Muqatil said: “We afflicted you with trials.” Mujahid said: “We purified you completely.”

In a report from Ibn Abbas narrated by Said ibn Jubayr, futun means that he underwent one trial after another, from each of which Allah delivered him. The first was that his mother conceived him in the year when Pharaoh was slaughtering infants; then his being cast into the river in the chest; then his refusal to nurse from any breast other than that of his mother; then his taking hold of Pharaoh’s beard, until Pharaoh intended to kill him; then his taking a burning ember instead of a pearl; then his killing of the Copt and his fearful flight to Midian. Ibn Abbas would relate this account to Said ibn Jubayr. Accordingly, the meaning of “And We tested you” is: We delivered you from those trials, just as gold is tested by fire and thereby purified of every impurity within it. (1) Futun is a verbal noun.

“Then you remained”: that is, you stayed. In other words, you left Egypt and remained “for years among the people of Midian,” tending sheep for ten years. Midian was the town of Shuayb, peace be upon him, eight stages from Egypt, and Moses fled there. Wahb said: He remained with Shuayb, peace be upon him, for twenty-eight years: ten of them were the bride-price for his daughter Safira, the daughter of Shuayb, and he stayed with him for eighteen years, until children were born to him.

“Then you came at the appointed time, O Moses.” Muqatil said: At an appointed time. This appointment was not made with Moses; rather, it was