Explanation of Hadith about Prophet Moses
22-5-2001 | IslamWeb
Question:
I am a convert to Islam, Alhamdulillah, married to a Muslim and trying to convert my Christian parents and friends to Islam, I showed them many verses in the Bible concerning the Prophets' sins and many wrong things in the Bible which insults the prophets, but one day one of my Christian friends showed me two narrations from Sahih Bukhari about Pprophet Musa (as) and I didn't believe in the first time, then I checked them and I found them in Sahih Bukhari, (Prophets Section.) The two narration are:
1. "(The Prophet) Moses was a shy person and used to cover his body completely because of his extensive shyness. One of the children of Israel hurt him by saying, 'He covers his body in this way only because of some defect in his skin, either leprosy or scrotal hernia, or he has some other defect'. Allah wished to clear Moses of what they said about him, so one day while Moses was in seclusion, he took off his clothes and put them on a stone and started taking a bath. When he had finished the bath, he moved towards his clothes so as to take them, but the stone took his clothes and fled; Moses picked up his stick and ran after the stone saying, 'O stone! Give me my garment!' Till he reached a group of Bani Israel who saw him NAKED then, and found him the best of what Allah had created, and Allah cleared him of what they had accused him of. The stone stopped there and Moses took and put his garment on and started hitting the stone with his stick. By Allah, the stone still has some traces of the hitting, three, four or five marks."
2. "The Angel of Death was sent to Moses when he came to Moses. Moses SLAPPED him on the eye. The angel returned to his Lord and said, "You have sent me to a Slave who does not want to die". Allah said, "Return to him and tell him to put his hand on the back of an ox and for every hair that will come under it, he will be granted one year of life". Moses said, "O Lord! What will happen after that?" Allah replied, "Then death". Moses said, "Let it come now". Moses then requested Allah to let him die close to the Sacred Land so much so that he would be at a distance of a stone's throw from it".
Answer:
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
Dear Brother, we praise Allah and thank Him for calling you to Islam and blessing you with a believing wife. We further pray that He will guide you and bless your intention to call your parents and friends to Islam. From the content of your question we perceive that you are quite anxious for them to discover Islam and to share the new found joy and contentment you experience in Islam. May Allah reward you for your good intentions.
However, we would advise you of the way of the Prophet in calling people to Islam, especially Christians who already believe in one God, by calling them to Tawheed, the belief and worship of God (Allah) alone.
It is narrated by Ibn Abbas in Bukhari that "Allah's Apostle said to Muadh Bin Jabal when he sent him to Yemen, 'you will come to the people of scripture, and when you reach them, invite them to testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah and that Muhammad is His Apostle. And if they obey you in that, then tell them that Allah has enjoined on them five prayers to be performed every day and night. And if they obey you in that, then tell them that Allah has enjoined on them Sadaqa (i.e. Zakat) to be taken from the rich amongst them and given to the poor amongst them. And if they obey you in that, then be cautious! Don't take their best properties (as Zakat) and be afraid of the curse of the oppressed person as there is no screen between his invocation and Allah".
From this Hadith and the background to it, we see much wisdom in calling Christians in particular to Islam. Sometime after the Prophet had returned to Madinah following the conquest of Mecca, messengers of the kings of Yemen came to him announcing that they and the people of Yemen had become Muslims. They requested that some teachers be sent with them to teach Islam to the people. For this task the Prophet commissioned a group of competent missionaries and made Muadh Ibn Jabal their emir. Muadh Ibn Jabal was the best pupil of the Prophet who said of him "The most knowledgeable of my Ummah in matters of Halal and Haram is Muadh Ibn Jabal".
From this mission we see that to perform Da'wah the Muslim must have knowledge of the religion. He must first call to Tawheed. He must have patience. (Muadh was sent for an indefinite period. In fact, when he returned to Medina, the Prophet had died.) He must not expect that people will immediately embrace Islam. He must be willing to carefully help them to progress from one stage to another in understanding the requirements of Islam.
We also invite your attention to the instruction of Allah to us: "And insult not those whom they (disbelievers) worship besides Allah, lest they insult Allah wrongfully without knowledge. Thus we have made fair-seeming to each people its own doings….(6:108)". From this command of Allah we see that if we approach those who disbelieve by attacking that which they hold sacred may have adverse consequences, or be counter-productive. We wanted to clarify to you the right of calling to Islam. In the following chapters, we tried to give you an answer to your question.
The story of Prophet Musa (Peace and blessing be upon him) and what happened to him while he was having a bath is an authentic and a correct story.
Al Bukhari, Muslim and Ahmad reported from Abu Huraira that he narrated Allah's Apostle said, "(The Prophet) Moses was a shy person and used to cover his body completely because of his extensive shyness. One of the children of Israel hurt him by saying, 'He covers his body in this way only because of some defect in his skin, either leprosy or scrotal hernia, or he has some other defect'. Allah wished to clear Moses of what they said about him, so one day while Moses was in seclusion, he took off his clothes and put them on a stone and started taking a bath. When he had finished the bath, he moved towards his clothes so as to take them, but the stone took his clothes and fled; Moses picked up his stick and ran after the stone saying, 'O stone! Give me my garment!' Till he reached a group of Bani Israel who saw him NAKED then, and found him the best of what Allah had created, and Allah cleared him of what they had accused him of. The stone stopped there and Moses took and put his garment on and started hitting the stone with his stick. By Allah, the stone still has some traces of the hitting, three, four or five marks. This was what Allah refers to in His Saying: - "O you who believe! Be you not like those Who annoyed Moses, But Allah proved his innocence of that which they alleged, And he was honorable In Allah's Sight".[33:69].
There is a difference between this story and what is found in the books of the Christians and the Jews which are full of allegations and accusations of defects and shortcomings imputed to the Prophets and Messengers of Allah. Indeed did not intend to show his Awrah (private parts) to his people as he went to a remote place away from any sight. But the stone ran away with his clothes. So, he ran behind it in order to get his clothes and he did not know that he would encounter anybody in the area. Surprisingly a group of his people happened to be in that very area. So, they saw him. Allah wanted to acquit Prophet Musa from his people's accusations. So, Musa's innocence was proved through this great miracle. There is nothing in the Hadith nor the verse that decreases the honor of Musa. On the contrary, this verse and Hadith express clearly and eloquently, the frankness of Musa, and his high qualities both morally and physically. The verse and the Hadith also stress the prohibition of accusing Prophet Musa or any other Prophets of things that are not suitable to him or them.
On the other hand, the Sharia does not deny that Prophets are normal people who could be seen nude. What the Sharia denies is the fact that any Prophet could willingly take his clothes in front of people to show them his naked body. This is impossible.
As for the claim of the Christians that Prophet Isa (Jesus) was killed and crucified, this was possible to take place. But we denied categorically that it took place because Allah denied that something like that took place. Allah informed us of the opposite. Allah said that he had raised Isa up to Himself. If Allah had not informed us of the true story, we would not have denied the Christian's story.
In fact, we compare Isa to other Prophets who were killed like: Zakaria, Yahya (Peace and blessing be upon them) etc., and we would not claim anything about Prophet Isa that has not been revealed by Allah.
Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {And many a Prophet (i.e. many from amongst the Prophets) fought (in Allah's Cause) and along with him (fought) large bands of religious learned men.}[3:146]. Allah also Says: {Is it that whenever there came to you a Messenger with what you yourselves desired not, you grew arrogant? Some, you disbelieved and some, you killed.}[2:87].
But we are surprised that the Christians contradict themselves. They believe that Isa is a Lord and a son of God and at the same time accept that the Jews took hold of him and killed him! In fact Prophet Isa (peace and blessing be upon him) was not killed nor crucified. Allah Says (interpretation of meaning): {And because of their saying (in boast), "We killed Messiah 'Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), the Messenger of Allâh," - but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but the resemblance of 'Iesa (Jesus) was put over another man (and they killed that man), and those who differ therein are full of doubts. They have no (certain) knowledge, they follow nothing but conjecture. For surely; they killed him not [i.e. 'Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary).}[4:157-158].
As for the story of Prophet Musa with the Angel of death, it is a sound story reported by Al Bukhari, Muslim, Ahmad and Al Nasai: from Abu Huraira that the Prophet said: "The Angel of Death was sent to Moses when he came to Moses. Moses SLAPPED him on the eye. The angel returned to his Lord and said, "You have sent me to a Slave who does not want to die". Allah said, "Return to him and tell him to put his hand on the back of an ox and for every hair that will come under it, he will be granted one year of life". Moses said, "O Lord! What will happen after that?" Allah replied, "Then death". Moses said, "Let it come now". Moses then requested Allah to let him die close to the Sacred Land so much so that he would be at a distance of a stone's throw from it". Abu Huraira added, "Allah's Apostle said, 'If I were there, I would show you his grave below the red sand hill on the side of the road".
Al Nawawi said: "It is also possible that Allah did not send the angel of death when he wanted to terminate his life. It might have been only a test. Prophet Musa might have slapped the man because he was a stranger who got into his house without his consent, ignoring that he was in fact the angel of death. It is lawful in Sharia to take out the eye of the person who looks inside your house without your consent. It is known that the angels came in the form of men to Prophets Ibrahim and Lut (Peace and blessing be upon them) and they did not recognize them. Prophet Ibrahim presented them something to eat before they told him who they were. Prophet Musa also might not have recognized the Angel. But when he come the second time with his eye in its place Prophet Musa recognized him and submitted himself to Allah's Will.
To conclude, we say that the Muslim should believe in these Ahadith and the like, as revelation from Allah The Almighty. If the person's mind and reasoning are short of making him understand the revealed message, he should know that the defect is not in the Sharia it is in his own mind and reasoning as Sharia could include some facts that could not be perceived and fully understood by the human mind.
We ask Allah to guide you to the right path.
Allah knows best.