The Man Who Could Not Let a Wrong Pass

Mūsā entered the town one day, at a time when its people were unaware, Allah says — this could have been at midday or at night. The streets were empty; there were not many people around. Mūsā saw two men fighting. And we will see throughout the story of Mūsā that Mūsā was the kind of person who would not let a wrong pass before his eyes without intervening. If he saw something wrong, he could not let it pass by; he had to do something; he had to intervene.

So Mūsā saw these two men fighting and came to see what was happening. He saw that one of them was from his own people, the children of Israel, and the other was an Egyptian, and they were fighting each other. So Mūsā intervened to support the Israelite against the Egyptian. What he did was this: Mūsā had a stick in his hand, and he pushed the Egyptian with it. He just pushed him — and the man fell down dead. Mūsā was strong. Mūsā did not intend to kill; he did not intend to kill. This was unintentional. But he pushed the man a little too hard, and the man fell down dead.