The Women in the Life of the Prophet Moses

[ابوالوليد المسلم]

The Women in the Life of the Prophet Moses (1/2)

Barbara Freyer Stowasser


The Women Surrounding the Prophet Moses (Musa) in the Qur'an
The Qur'an tells the stories of several women connected with Moses:[1] mother, sister, foster mother, and wife. His foster mother was the righteous wife of the tyrannical Pharaoh; it was she who saved his life and raised him from infancy "under God's eye" in the household of God's enemy. Moses' wife was the daughter of an old Madyanite flockherder in whose service he spent some years before God's initiation of his prophethood. The Qur'anic revelations on the events in Moses' life in which these women played a part belong into the middle Meccan and late Meccan periods. Only the verse on Pharaoh's wife whose righteousness is revealed as "an example to the believers" (Surah At-Tahrim, 66: 11) is dated into the late Medinan period, and there she is linked with the virgin Mary (Surah At-Tahrim, 66: 12).


The Qur'an tells that Pharaoh had elevated himself in the land of Egypt and had broken up its people into fragmented groups. Of these, he oppressed a small minority, the Israelites, killing their sons (or: men) and keeping their daughters (or: women) alive (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:4; Surah Ibrahim, 14:6; Surah Ghafir, 40:25; Surah Al-A'raf, 7:127,141; Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:49). "To release the Children of Israel from their bondage and defeat Pharaoh, Haman, and their hosts" (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:5-6), God sent an inspiration to the mother of Moses that she should throw her child into a "chest" (or "ark," tabut)[2] and the chest into the river, which would cast it upon the bank, so that he would be taken in by "an enemy of God and an enemy to Moses" (Surah Ta-Ha, 20:38-39). “God also inspired Moses' mother to suckle the child; but when afraid for his life, she should cast him into the river without fear or sadness, since God would restore him to her and make him one of His messengers.” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:7). Pharaoh's family rescued Moses "in order that he would be their enemy and a cause of sorrow for them, because Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts were men of sin" (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:8). “Pharaoh's wife found joy in the infant and prevailed on the Pharaoh not to kill him, saying that he would be useful to them or they might adopt him as a son.”[3] (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:9). “But Moses' (natural) mother was grieving and almost told about him, had not God strengthened her heart so that she remained a firm believer.” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28: 10). “Moses' mother told his sister to follow the baby and observe all that was happening while no one knew who she was.” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28: 11). “God ordained that the child Moses refused to nurse until his sister recommended their mother as nursemaid for him. In this manner, Moses' mother was reunited with her son.” (Surah Ta-Ha, 20: 40; Surah Al-Qasas, 28: 12-13). Moses' foster mother, the Pharaoh's wife, was a righteous woman, "an example for the believers. She prayed to God to build her a house with Him in paradise, deliver her from the Pharaoh and his doings, and deliver her from the sinful people."[4] (Surah At-Tahreem, 66: 11).


“When Moses had reached adulthood, God bestowed power of judgment and knowledge on him” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:14). “Then he killed an unbeliever” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:15-16); he fled from Egypt and stayed for a number of years with the people of Madyan (Surah Al-Qasas, 28: 15-22; Surah Ta-Ha, 20:40). “When he first arrived at the watering place in Madyan, he found there some men who were watering their flocks, and also two women who kept their flocks back. These said that they could not water their animals until the shepherds were done with their work; and they added that their father was a very old man” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:23). “Moses watered the women's animals for them, and one of them returned to him, walking bashfully, and invited him to her father's house” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28: 24-25). “One of the two women then said to her father that he should hire Moses, because he was strong and trustworthy” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:26). “The patriarch wedded one of his daughters to Moses on condition that he serve him for eight or ten years, and Moses accepted” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:27-28). “When Moses had fulfilled the term and was travelling with his family, he perceived a fire (in the direction of Mount Tur) and told his family to stay behind while he would go to obtain some tiding of the way there, or a burning brand to light their fire and warm them” (Surah Ta-Ha, 20:10; Surah An-Naml, 27:7; Surah Al-Qasas, 28:29). But when he reached the fire, a voice told him that he was in the presence of God (Surah An-Naml, 27:8-9). The voice commanded that he take off his shoes because he was in the Lord's presence in the sacred valley of Tuwa” (Surah Ta-ha, 20: 12). “He heard a voice from the right bank of the valley, from a tree in hallowed ground, which called to him: "Moses, verily I am God, the Lord of the Worlds"” (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:30). Thus began the prophethood of Moses.


The Women Surrounding the Prophet Moses in Islamic Interpretation
Moses' father is identified as Amram [Imran],[5] chief of the Israelites. When the Egyptian Pharaoh had a dream that his rule would be ended by a child, he had the Israelite male children in Egypt "and their mothers" killed to ensure that his reign would endure. Seventy thousand Israelite male babies and twelve thousand Israelite mothers are said to have been slaughtered. Amram, however, was appointed the Pharaoh's grand vizier and became "imprisoned" in the palace.[6] Moses' mother conceived this child close to the purple, in Pharaoh's own bedroom. This occurred when Amram, while sitting at the head of Pharaoh's bed as was his custom, saw his wife arrive on the wing of a bird; he lay with her on Pharaoh's rug, and then the bird carried her back to her own house.[7] Ibn Kathir reports that the woman showed no signs of her pregnancy which thus escaped detection.[8] The argument that her husband was "imprisoned" in the castle, however, did not hold back the Egyptian soldiers in search of newborn Israelite males. Legend tells that Moses' mother used to secretly hide the infant in the oven when she had to go out on an errand. One day her daughter lit a roaring fire in the oven where Moses was, and the military search party did not detect him. The baby was miraculously saved and called to his mother to pull him out of the blaze.[9] Then God inspired her![10] to save her son by placing him in an ark and casting the ark on the waters of the Nile where it drifted for forty days, or three, or one night.[11] When the ark was retrieved by Pharaoh's folk and opened,[12] the light of prophethood was seen shining on the baby's face. Then they searched for a nursemaid for him, and through his sister's clever intervention the child's own mother was hired to nurse him, either in the royal palace[13] or in her own home.[14]


From among the women associated with Moses, exegetic literature places the greatest emphasis on Pharaoh's wife. Her name is given as Asya. She was either the daughter of Muzahim ibn Ubayd ibn al-Rayyan ibn al-Walid, Pharaoh in the time of the prophet Joseph, or she was an Israelite of Moses' tribe, perhaps his paternal aunt or first cousin.[15] She was one of the four most beautiful women ever created.[16] Miraculous events surrounded her birth and early life. Her marriage to the infidel Pharaoh was a sacrifice she made for the safety of her people, but this marriage was never consummated since God struck the Pharaoh with impotence.[17] It was Asya who saved the child Moses from the river, brought him up in her palace, and protected him against her husband's murderous wrath on many occasions. Her martyr's death occurred after Pharaoh had killed a number of believers in the palace, among them a ladies' maid, her children, and her husband; [18] when Asya picked up an iron stake to avenge these innocent victims, the Pharaoh had her tortured to death. Iron stakes were driven into her breast, but Gabriel arrived with glad tidings that she would be joining Muhammad in paradise. He gave her nectar from paradise and gently took her soul so that she felt no pain from Pharaoh's torture. Her last words were those of Qur’an, Surah At-Tahreem, 66: 11.[19]


Ibn Kathir, recording medieval traditions on God's special recompense for this believing woman, speaks of Asya as one of the Prophet's celestial wives, supreme honor that she will share with the Prophet's earthly wives and also the virgin Mary. [20] A number of traditions on the authority of the Prophet establish that Asya and Mary, Muhammad's wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid and Muhammad’s daughter Fatima are "the best women of the world" and also "the ruling females in heaven.” [21] While Asya's and Mary's merit is established on the basis of the Qur'an (Surah At-Tahreem, 66:11-12), Khadija's merit is seen in her support of the Prophet from the day they met to the day she died. Fatima's merit (in Sunni exegesis) lies in her grief over the Prophet's death whom of all his children she alone survived. (In Shi'i tradition, the theme of Fatima, "mistress of sorrows," is much more prominent, and the figures of Fatima and Mary bear many similarities).[22]

(Continued)

[1] On these figures and events in the life of Moses, cf. Exodus chs. 1-18. For biblical and rabbinic parallels, see Newby, Prophet, pp. 113ff.

[2] Tabut is also used in Qur'an 2:248 in the meaning of "Ark of the Covenant," while Noah's "ark" in the Qur'an is al-fulk, "the ship"; cf. above.

[3] These are the same words as those spoken by the Aziz to his wife after his purchase of Joseph (Surah Yusuf, 12:21).

[4] These words are said to have been her last, spoken before her martyr's death.

[5] Since this is also the Qur'anic designation of the father of the virgin Mary, there has been a Christian tradition of assuming a Qur'anic "confusion" of Mary (Maryam) the mother of Jesus with Miriam (Maryam) the sister of Moses and Aaron. This allegation has been strongly rejected by Muslims. (Cf. ch. 1, above, and ch. 7, below). Some interpretative works list more than one figure of Moses. On Ibn Ishaq's three figures by that name, cf Newby, Prophet, pp. 114ff.

[6] Thackston, al-Kisa'i, pp. 213-216; Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, pp. 5-6.

[7] Thackston, al-Kisa'i, p. 215.

[8] Qisas, vol. II, p. 7. To explain why Moses' older brother Aaron was not similarly threatened, Ibn Kathir reports that by Pharaonic decree the child murders occurred every other year, because the Israelites were also useful to the Egyptians. Aaron, said to have been three years older than Moses, was thus born during an "amnesty year" (ibid.).

[9] Thackston, al-Kisa'i, pp. 215-216.

[10] Ibn Kathir, "in accordance with al-Ash'ari and community consensus," places God's inspiration to Moses' mother into the category of "guidance," not "prophethood" (as claimed by Ibn Hazm "and other Mu'tazilites"] (Qisas, vol. II, p. 8); on the question of women's prophethood, cf ch. 7 below.

[11] Al-Kisa'i here also reports that the ark drifted into a pool of Nile water in the Pharaoh's palace, which had been constructed to cure the seven royal daughters from disease. When the young women picked up the infant Moses, they were healed (Thackston, al-Kisa'i, pp. 216-217). Thackston sees alchemical elements in the story's fire, water, and healing components (ibid., p. 352, n. 100).

[12] Either by Pharaoh's daughter (Thackston, al-Kisa'i, p. 217) or by Asya, Pharaoh's wife (Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, pp. 8-9).

[13] Thackston, al-Kisa'i, p. 218. "Jochebed," Moses' mother, is here said to have nursed him in the palace for three years.

[14] Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, p. 11. In concert with other medieval interpreters, Ibn Kathir here points out the magnitude of God's bounty, which reunited Moses' mother with her son, permitted her to care for him, and do all of this while deriving an income.

[15] Ibn Kathir Qisas, vol. II, p. 8; Thackston, al-Kisa'i, p. 217. Thackston develops the identification of Asya with the Christian martyr St. Catherine of Alexandria, who was of royal lineage, and also with Esther, biblical royal consort and adversary of the king's favorite "minister" Haman (al-Kisa'i, pp. 351-352, n. 100).

[16] Together with Mary mother of Jesus, the Prophet's wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid, and his daughter Fatima (Thackston, al-Kisa'i, p. 213). On the "ranking" of Asya, Mary, and women of the Prophet's family, cf below.

[17] Thackston, al-Kisa'i, p. 214.

[18] This husband is often identified as Harbil and said to have been "the believer from among Pharaoh's family who concealed his faith" [Qur'an Surah Ghafir, 40:28). For this and other identifications, cf. Thackston, ibid., p. 352-353 n. 101.

[19] Ibid., pp. 218-219, 231-232.

[20] Qisas, vol. II, pp. 381 ff.

[21] Some traditions include the Prophet's wife A'isha in this distinguished group (Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, pp. 375-380).

[22] Cf. ch. 7, below.

[ابوالوليد المسلم]

The Women in the Life of the Prophet Moses (2/2)

Barbara Freyer Stowasser


This scripturalist connection of historical Islam's holy women with those of earlier sacred history goes beyond reaffirmation of the Qur'anic theme of Islam's position as interpreter of all past revelations. The women have here been joined in an archetype of righteousness.[1] Its core is female commitment to God and obedience to His command. Secondary aspects are virginity and/ or freedom from female physical symptoms such as menstruation and post*partem bleeding. Asya's Hadith-recorded marriage to an impotent Pharaoh here equals Mary's virginity which, in turn, is connected with Fatima's Hadith * recorded freedom from defilement.[2] Likewise, Khadija is given the honorific title al-tahirah, "the pure."[3] (Even though the classical Hadith records that Khadija was married twice before her marriage to Muhammad,[4] a contemporary pious reader on her life even makes her Muhammad's virgin bride who had previously spumed all suitors from among the "Arab nobles and princes").[5]


Virginity and purity are then, thirdly, conjoined with motherhood: Asya's by adoption, Mary's by the power of God's spirit. Khadija was the mother of all of the Prophet's children but one,[6] and Fatima the mother of Muhammad's grandsons Hasan and Husayn who, to many Muslims, were his true heirs.


This paradigm no longer informs contemporary writings on Asya's righteousness. Her story now exemplifies the believer's duty to testify to God's Oneness even at the peril of life. Neither spouse nor relatives can stand in the way of true devotion to God. With Asya, it was the Pharaoh's claim to be a god and his people's fearful prostrations before him that struck her as mad* ness. The torture of innocent believers then prompted her to declare her faith openly; when she would not be dissuaded even by her own mother, she suffered a martyr's death.[7] "Closest to Pharaoh, her spirit was farthest away."[8]


Asya now proves to the Muslim woman that (in Islam) the female has the freedom to choose her faith, even if against the will of a tyrannical husband.[9]


Of Moses' wife the Qur'an only tells that she was an old Madyanite sheepherder’s[10] daughter. In some qisas al-anbiya', she is identified as Zipporah (Safura],[11] the young woman who "walked bashfully" (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:25) and suggested to her father that he hire Moses (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:26).[12] The story has also been embellished with some further details. It is said that the sheepherder's daughters could not water their small flock because the shepherds had placed a large stone on the well, which only Moses could remove.[13] Else, they lacked the strength to jostle the male crowd.[14] Greater emphasis is placed on the "bashful gait" (Surah Al-Qasas, 28:25) of the Madyanite girl who returned to Moses still sitting at the well.[15] "She walked in the manner that free [not slave] women walk,"[16] to invite him to her father's house. On the way to her home, and while she was walking in front of Moses, the wind lifted up her garment and he saw her thigh.[17] It was then that Moses asked the young woman to walk behind him and throw pebbles to show in which direction he should proceed, so that neither her figure nor her voice would be apparent to him, the male stranger.[18]


In contemporary Muslim literature, the daughters of the Madyanite patriarch loom even larger as models for emulation by the righteous Muslim female. Their model behavior, firstly, is seen in their attitude toward work in the public sphere, that is, outside their home; secondly, a paradigm is once again derived from the personal comportment (of one of them). On the former point, the conservative Muslim argument is as follows:
Islamic morality requires that the woman work in her home and refrain from participation in public life and public affairs; Islam has established that women's work should be done within the parameters of the family, except in cases of established and unavoidable necessity. Now the two young women in Madyan were obliged to water their animals in public because their father was a very old man. This is an example of "the need to work"; but here the two women’s righteousness consisted in the fact that "they held their animals back until the male shepherds were done," so that they avoided mingling with the men in their work.[19]


This Qur'anic story, then, here serves as scripturalist proof that Muslim women's work outside of the home is religiously acceptable only as long as it is truly unavoidable and does not entail association with strangers (that is, nonrelated males).[20] Moses' righteousness prompted him to do the job for the women in order to relieve them of what contemporary conservatives assert was a moral burden. Here the understanding is that what Moses did for the two young women in Madyan must now be done by Muslim society at large. Muslim society, be it the immediate neighborhood or society at large, must take cognizance when a woman is compelled by circumstances to leave her "natural arena" to work elsewhere, and it must help her out so that she may safely return to her home. As for the woman, she must strive with all her might to settle the contingency at the earliest moment possible. The two women in Madyan did this by asking their old father to hire Moses since he was "strong and trustworthy." They had not worked outside of the home because of preference but because of need; and they eliminated this need at the earliest possibility. This, then, presents a model to be followed by all believing Muslim women.[21] Contemporary conservative teaching continues to find a second paradigm in this story in the old sheepherder's daughter's "bashful gait" when it emphasizes that this young woman "walked like a true female, not trying to behave like a man.... Therein lies another lesson for the contemporary Muslim woman."[22]


In the medieval model, the "bashful gait" separated the free-born (respectable) Muslim woman from the (not-so respectable) slave; at present, the "bashful gait" separates the traditional Muslim woman from her modernist sister who "tries to behave like a man."

[1] For this combination of myth and history, Newby and others have used the term "mythomorphism" (Newby, Prophet, p. 17).

[2] Cf. ch. 7, below.

[3] Ibn Sa'd (d. 845), Kitab al-tabaqat al-kabir, vol. 8, ed. Carl Brockelmann (Leiden: Brill, 1904), p. 8.

[4] To Abu Hala Hind ibn al Nabbash, and thereafter to Atiq ibn Abid ibn Abd Allah (ibid., p. 8).

[5] Syed A. A. Razwy, Kbadija-tul-Kubra (Elmhurst: Tahrike Tarsile Qur'an, Inc., 1990), pp. 13-14.

[6] Cf. below, Part II.

[7] al-Shal, Qisas, pp. 118-122.

[8] al-Shal, Qisas, p. 117. This writer (p. 119) adds that Asya rejoiced in Moses' da'wa ("call to the cause of true monotheism"), and that she used to listen to Moses' exhortations from behind the hijab ("curtain separating believing womenfolk from male strangers"). On the hijab of Qur'an, 33:53 and its interpretations, cf Part II, below.

[9] Al-Sha'rawi, Qadaya, pp. 10-11; and Stowasser, Impulse, p. 267.

[10] There is no medieval consensus on whether this shaykh was the Madyanite prophet Shu'ayb, Majority opinion is that he was not, even though he is said to have been a relative of Shu'ayb (nephew, or first cousin); else, perhaps, a believer who belonged to Shu'ayb's community, or the kahin ("soothsayer") o fthe Madyanites (cf Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, p. 19, where his name is given as Yathrun). The disagreement continues in modern popular literature; cf Sha'rawi, Qadaya, p. 20, as opposed to al-Shal, Qisas, p. 114.

[11] Thackston, al-Kisa'i, p. 222; cf. al-Shal, Qisas, pp. 113-114.

[12] Because of her suggestion to hire Moses, medieval traditions have ranked this young woman among "the three most discerning people." She is said to share this honor with the Aziz of Egypt who, having purchased the prophet Joseph, instructed his wife to "make his stay honorable"; and also with the first caliph of Islam, Abu Bakr, who appointed Umar ibn al-Khattab as his successor (Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, p. 19). In modern popular interpretation, this young woman's strength by contrast is said to have emerged when she was lost with Moses in the Sinai ... on a cold and rainy night, and about to begin labor in the birth of their child; then, as soon as God had called Moses and he returned from the sacred place, "a new stage began for this woman ... she became her husband's spiritual ally and supporter" (al-Shal, Qisas, pp. 115-116).

[13] Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, pp. 16-17. It was of a weight that only ten men could budge.

[14] Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, p. 158.

[15] Moses then was destitute. He was very hungry, and his sandals had fallen off his feet during his journey from Egypt to Madyan (Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, p. 17).

[16] Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, p. 18; here meant are the modest stride and downcast eyes of the paradigmatic "free" (and by definition "respectable") Muslim woman as opposed to the expansive stride and roving eyes of the paradigmatic "slave woman." Female slaves were women born into slavery, or non-Muslims taken prisoners of war; traded at slave markets or sent as gifts to important men, they were poor and exploited or, in some cases, highly educated and/or powerful. While they represented a large and important segment of medieval Muslim societies, in legal rights and obligations, status and societal "expectation" slave women were a class apart from free women.

[17] Thackston, al-Kisa'i, p. 222.

[18] Ibn Kathir, Qisas, vol. II, pp. 19, 159; Thackston, al-Kisa'i, pp. 221-222. For a modern version, al-Shal, Qisas, p. 114. The Islamic institution of gender segregation has traditionally involved injunctions against any form of female "presence" in relation to strangers. Forbidden, then, were Sight (hence, female segregation in the home and veiling when abroad); speech; the jiggling of hidden jewelry; and also scent. On issues of gender segregation, cf Part II, below.

[19] Paraphrase of al-Sha'rawi, Qadaya, p. 21.

[20] Cf. Stowasser, Impulse, pp. 269-270.

[21] al-Sha'rawi, Qadaya, pp. 23-26; cf Stowasser, Impulse, pp. 269-270.

[22] Al-Sha'rawi, Qadaya, p. 22.