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After committing serious crimes, Moses will be forced to flee to Madyan, a distant land, where he will meet Shu’ayb, one of the prophets of Islam.
Tensions at Pharaoh’s house
As already said, Moses will be brought up to the Pharaoh’s court, quickly becoming one of the young people most loved by the sovereign; according to some sources, however, the monarch continually had doubts that this child was not the one who would destroy the Kingdom of the Nile. In fact, there are Isrāʾīliyyāt hadiths (that is, coming from the biblical and non-Quranic tradition) that tell how a young Moses slapped his adoptive father, who then decided to test his nature.
To do this, the pharaoh placed two plates in front of the little one: one filled with rubies and one with incandescent coals. The young man was tempted to take the precious stones, but the archangel Gabriel directed his hand towards the seconds which, swallowed, will cause the stammering of the future prophet.
Moses the murderer
The first turning point, however, occurred when he reached adulthood. One day he found himself walking around the city, running into a fierce clash between an Egyptian and a Jew. The latter, given the unfavorable situation, turned to Moses, who entered the dispute killing the African in an excess of anger. Desperate for his actions, he spent a whole day mulling over what he had done, except, the next day, to carry out the same actions again.
At this point the pharaoh was forced to arrest him and so Moses decided to flee away from the Nile, finding refuge in the distant land of Madyan.
Madyan
Here he met two shepherdesses to whom he provided valuable help with the flock, obtaining immense gratitude from them. These, once he returned home, warned his father of recent events, who immediately invited the newcomer to a party, offering him an interesting deal: if he had dealt with the herds for the next 8/10 years, he would have given him married one of his daughters. The offer was accepted without any indecision, linking Moses and these lands for a long time, as well as making him related to a prophet.
According to the Quranic tradition, in fact, the father of the two girls would be none other than Shu’ayb, the prophet sent by Allah to the Midianite people. In the Bible, however, this figure is often identified with Jethro, a local priest of great importance in the Jewish tradition, so much so that he is also considered the first adviser of the future author of the Exodus.
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