from straying and wandering off. The first view is the soundest, in light of what follows: “He said”—that is, Moses said to the two women—“What is the matter with you?” That is, why do you not water your livestock along with the people? They said, “We do not water”—our sheep—“until the shepherds have departed.” Abu Ja‘far, Abu ‘Amr, and Ibn ‘Amir read it as yasdura, with an intransitive sense: until the shepherds return from the water. The others read it as yusdiru: until they themselves lead their livestock away from the water. “Shepherds” is the plural of “shepherd,” just as “merchants” is the plural of “merchant.”
The meaning of the verse is: We do not water our livestock until the shepherds have departed, because we are two women, unable to draw water and unable to contend with the men. Once they have departed, we water our livestock with whatever water their livestock have left in the trough.
“And our father is a very old man”: he is unable to water his livestock, and so we have had to water the sheep ourselves. They differed over their father’s name. Mujahid, al-Dahhak, al-Suddi 62/b, and al-Hasan said that he was the Prophet Shu‘ayb, peace be upon him. Wahb ibn Munabbih and Sa‘id ibn Jubayr said: He was Jethro (1), the son of Shu‘ayb’s brother; Shu‘ayb had died before that, after becoming blind, and was buried between the Station and Zamzam. It was also said that he was a man from among those who believed in Shu‘ayb (2).
They said: When Moses heard what they said, he took pity on them and pulled away a rock from the mouth of another well near them—a rock which only a group of people could lift.
(1) Ibn Kathir said: “This is found in the books of Bani Israel (the Children of Israel).”
(2) Al-Tabari, may Allah have mercy on him, said (20/62): “This is a matter whose knowledge can only be attained through a transmitted report, and there is no report concerning it whose authority must be accepted. Therefore, no statement is more correct than what Allah, exalted be His praise, has said...” After citing the preceding views, Ibn Kathir said (3/385-386): “Others said that Shuayb lived long before Musa, peace be upon him, because he said to his people: ‘The people of Lut are not far from you.’ The destruction of the people of Lut occurred in the time of al-Khalil, peace be upon him, as explicitly stated in the Quran. It is known that more than four hundred years elapsed between al-Khalil and Musa, as more than one scholar has mentioned. The claim that Shuayb lived for a long time was, Allah knows best, merely advanced to avoid this difficulty. Further evidence supporting the view that he was not Shuayb is that, had he been Shuayb, his name would likely have been explicitly mentioned here in the Quran. The reports that explicitly name him in the story of Musa have unsound chains of transmission.”
For this reason, Sayyid Qutb wrote in Fi Zilal al-Quran (5/2687), note (1), Dar al-Shuruq edition: “I am now inclined to regard it as more likely that he was not Shuayb, but rather another elder from Madyan. What supports this preference is that this man was an elderly shaykh. Shuayb witnessed the destruction of his people who denied him, and only those who believed in him remained with him. Had he been the Prophet Shuayb among the remaining believers of his people, they would not have watered their flocks before the two daughters of their elderly prophet. This is neither the conduct of believing people nor the manner in which they would treat their prophet and his daughters, especially in the first generation. Moreover, the Quran does not mention anything about his teaching Musa, his son-in-law. Had he been the Prophet Shuayb, we would have heard the voice of prophethood in some aspect of his dealings with Musa, who lived with him for ten years.”