O you who believe! Be not like those who annoyed Musa

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In The Name of Allah, The Most Merciful, The Bestower of Mercy.

Musa, peace be upon him, was a very shy man and used to cover his body completely. No part of his skin was seen due to shyness. So, he was hurt by those amongst the children of Israel who said:

“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 free Musa, peace be upon him, from that which they said about him; so one day whilst he was in seclusion, he took off his clothes and put them on a stone and started taking a bath. When he finished the bath, he moved towards his clothes to take them, but the stone fled with his clothes. Musa picked up his stick and ran after the stone saying: ‘O stone! My clothes’ until he reached a group of the children of Israel who saw him without [clothes], and found him the best of that which Allah had created, and Allah freed him from what they had accused him of. They said: “By Allah! Nothing is wrong with Musa”. The stone stopped there, so Musa took his and put on them, and thereafter 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 referred to in His statement:

 يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لَا تَكُونُواْ كَٱلَّذِينَ ءَاذَوۡاْ مُوسَىٰ فَبَرَّأَهُ ٱللَّهُ مِمَّا قَالُواْۚ وَكَانَ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ وَجِيہً۬ا

O you who believe! Be not like those who annoyed Musa (Moses), but Allah cleared him of that which they alleged, and he was honourable in the sight of Allah.[Al-Ahzab. 69]

Al-Allamah Zaid Bin Hadi al-Mad’khali, may Allah have mercy upon him, said:

This hadith (reports) one of the most amazing stories – a story through which Allah raised the status of Musa, peace be upon him. In this hadith, there is a clarification regarding the fact that the Messengers and the Prophets were put to trial at the hands of the evil ones in  their nations, so they exercised patience whilst facing harm, received abundant reward from Allah, The Mighty and Majestic, and carried on propagating Allah’s message. Indeed, the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, informed us that Musa, peace be upon him, was harmed by Bani Israa’eel but he exercised patience. In this hadith, there is proof to show that the miracles of the Messengers and Prophets are affirmed. And with regards to this particular miracle, the stone- an inanimate object – moved and fled with the thobe; then Musa, peace be upon him, was finally able to catch up with it. He hit it several times and left a mark on it. This is the great miracle that has been mentioned in this hadith.

Source: An Excerpt from at-Taleeqaat al-Malihah Alaa Silsilah Al-Ahadith As-Sahihah 1/135