Walking With Shyness

Then one of the two women came to him, walking shyly. She said: truly, my father calls you, so that he may reward you for having watered our flock for us. Allah (swt) says ʿalā istiḥyāʾ: she was walking with ḥayāʾ, with shyness. Shyness, ḥayāʾ, is a quality that men and women in the West have lost.

By the way, ḥayāʾ is not only for women; it is for men and women. We know that ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (may Allah be pleased with him) was described as a man with a great deal of ḥayāʾ. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would sit in a certain way and present himself to ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān in a certain way, and when he was asked why he did not do that with Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: should I not be shy before a man before whom the angels are shy? So this is not a quality only for women; it is also for men. Shyness is a branch of īmān: shuʿbatun min shuʿab al-īmān.

This woman came to Mūsā walking very shyly — shy because she was dealing with a stranger, a man she did not know. The Muslim sister came walking with shyness and said: my father wants to pay you — to reward you — for what you have done. So Mūsā followed her; some of the Salaf say that Mūsā walked in front of her. In any case, they reached the father, an old man — old, because the women had said, and our father is a very old man.

So Mūsā went to visit this old man. Many of the mufassirūn say that this man was Shuʿayb (peace be upon him). There is no evidence for that from the Qur'an or from the Sunnah, but it is a strong opinion among many of the scholars of tafsīr among the Salaf; they say that he was Shuʿayb. So Mūsā met with him, and Allah (swt) says that Mūsā narrated his story to him — told him the story of his life. It was a very interesting story, and Mūsā began narrating it to this old man.

When Mūsā told him his story, the old man said: do not fear; you are now safe from the wrongdoing people. He was telling him: you have crossed the border; you are out of Egypt now, so do not worry — it is safe for you here. He was in Madyan. When Mūsā (peace be upon him) left Egypt, he did not know where he was going. He had never travelled out of Egypt; he just walked east, trying to get out of Egypt. And now this man was telling him: you have crossed the border and reached safety. Allah (swt) says: you have escaped from the people who are ẓālimīn, the oppressors.