وَهَلْ أَتَىٰكَ حَدِيثُ مُوسَىٰٓ · إِذْ رَءَا نَارًا فَقَالَ لِأَهْلِهِ ٱمْكُثُوٓا۟ إِنِّىٓ ءَانَسْتُ نَارًا لَّعَلِّىٓ ءَاتِيكُم مِّنْهَا بِقَبَسٍ أَوْ أَجِدُ عَلَى ٱلنَّارِ هُدًى · فَلَمَّآ أَتَىٰهَا نُودِىَ يَٰمُوسَىٰ · إِنِّىٓ أَنَا۠ رَبُّكَ فَٱخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ إِنَّكَ بِٱلْوَادِ ٱلْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى
Wa hal atāka ḥadīthu Mūsā · Idh raʾā nāran fa-qāla li-ahlihi'mkuthū innī ānastu nāran laʿallī ātīkum minhā bi-qabasin aw ajidu ʿala'n-nāri hudā · Fa-lammā atāhā nūdiya yā Mūsā · Innī ana rabbuka fakhlaʿ naʿlayka innaka bi'l-wādi'l-muqaddasi Ṭuwā
"Has the report of Moses come to you? · When he saw a fire and said to his family, 'Stay here; I have made out a fire. Perhaps I shall bring you a brand from it, or find a guide at the fire.' · When he reached it he was called: 'O Moses! · I, indeed I am your Lord. Take off your sandals; you are in the sacred valley, Ṭuwā.'"
This scene has been treated twice in the series: al-Qaṣaṣ on 28/29-35 and al-Naml on 27/7-8. The analysis of the root أ-ن-س was made at al-Qaṣaṣ (to see and make out, to grow warm; from the same root ins and uns; the lexicographers record the sense "to sense a light from afar") and the two tellings were compared in a table at al-Naml. I do not repeat the root analysis; I rely on those treatments.
What belongs here is the comparison of all three at once. The whole of the table can be verified from the text:
| Ṭāhā 20/10-12 | al-Naml 27/7-8 | al-Qaṣaṣ 28/29-30 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Word to the family | Imkuthū — "stay" | None | None |
| Making it out | Innī ānastu nārā | Innī ānastu nārā | Ānasa min jānibi'ṭ-Ṭūri nārā |
| Statement of place | Given afterwards: al-wādi'l-muqaddasi Ṭuwā | None | Min jānibi'ṭ-Ṭūr |
| What is to be brought | Bi-qabasin | Bi-shihābin qabasin | Bi-jadhwatin mina'n-nār |
| The second possibility | Aw ajidu ʿala'n-nāri hudā | Bi-khabarin | Bi-khabarin |
| Mention of warming | None | Laʿallakum taṣṭalūn | Laʿallakum taṣṭalūn |
| The first call | Yā Mūsā — the name | Būrika man fi'n-nār — blessing | Innī ana'llāhu rabbu'l-ʿālamīn — identity |
| Then | Innī ana rabbuka fakhlaʿ naʿlayk | Identity a verse later (27/9) | — |
One — only in Ṭāhā is there a command spoken to the family: imkuthū (stay, remain). The root م-ك-ث: to halt in a place and wait, to tarry. That is, Ṭāhā opens the scene with Moses being left alone.
Two — only in Ṭāhā is the second thing sought hudā. In al-Naml and al-Qaṣaṣ what is expected from the fire is news and a brand; in Ṭāhā a brand and a guide.
I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the distribution of words in the sūra: the root ه-د-ي occurs in eight verses of this sūra (10, 50, 79, 82, 122, 123, 128, 135) and comes out of Moses's own mouth in the first sentence of the story, before anything has yet happened. That is, the sūra places what is sought at the head of the story, and closes with the same word in its last verse: wa mani'htadā (135).
Three — the expression ʿala'n-nāri hudā is worth recording. A fire seen at night in the desert is the sign that someone is there; a man who has lost his way goes to that fire and asks the road. That is, the sentence describes an everyday custom of the desert.
And the observation recorded at al-Qaṣaṣ holds here too: the call comes not in a place that was sought — but on the road, at a point turned aside to for an everyday need. What is peculiar to Ṭāhā is this, and I give it as my own reading: Moses was looking for someone to ask the road of; what he found was the one who gives the road itself. The word is the same: hudā.
In Arabic this is the ḍamīr al-faṣl, the pronoun of separation or emphasis, and it conveys that the predicate is bound to the subject definitively. In English it can be given only by stress: "I, indeed I am your Lord."
And the same pattern will come once more in the fourteenth verse, denser still: innanī ana'llāhu lā ilāha illā ana. Three separate pronouns across two verses.
The root خ-ل-ع: to pull off and cast away something worn on top. The lexicographers explain the root through a garment's or a covering's being parted from the body; from the same root come khilʿa (the robe of honour bestowed) and khulʿ (the dissolving of a marriage). The root ن-ع-ل occurs here for the first time in the series: naʿl — sandal, shoe; what is placed under the foot.
In the classical commentaries different explanations of the reason for the command are transmitted, and the disagreement must not be concealed:
| Explanation | What it says |
|---|---|
| 1 | The sanctity of the place — taking off the sandal is reverence for the place |
| 2 | Contact — the bare foot's touching the blessed ground |
| 3 | The quality of the sandal — that certain hides were not held fit by the custom of the day |
| 4 | Symbolic — the laying aside of worldly preoccupations |
The fourth explanation is widespread in the ṣūfī literature; I transmit it too as a transmitted explanation, not as a datum the text supplies. I do not impose a preference.
The one thing that can be verified from the text is this, and I record it: the command comes immediately after the declaring of identity and before the giving of the commission. That is, the first thing commanded is not a task but a preparation.
طُوًى — given as the name of the valley. Whether the word is a proper name or an attribute meaning "twice, folded over" has been disputed; among the variant readings both a nunated and an unnunated pronunciation are transmitted. I transmit the disagreement and do not impose a preference.