The maidens led the way while Musa (as) followed them...

The maidens led the way while Musa (as) followed them, but as they walked, the outlines of their bodies became visible and this appeared unsuitable to Musa’s modesty (to look at).

Consequently, he said to them: “I shall lead the way while you follow up behind me; correct me if you find me heading in the wrong direction (or throw pebbles before me so that I know where to go) for we, the children of Ya’qub, do not look at the backs of women.” When the ladies approached Sho’aib (as) and related the incident to him, he gave his daughter in marriage to Musa (as), owing to the latter’s assistance, modesty, purity, trustworthiness and physical strength.[^4] The Modesty of the Eyes It has been related in the commentary Ruhul Bayan that in a city there lived three brothers.

The eldest brother had been the muezzin of the mosque in the city and used to recite the adhan from the top of its minaret. After extending his services for ten years, he died and the second brother took over his brother’s task. A few years later, this brother died too and so, the people approached the third brother and urged him to accept this responsibility and not to let the sound of adhan be terminated. But he flatly refused. “We shall give you a large amount of money!” they said to him.

But he replied, “Even if you were to give me a hundred times more, I would not accept this task.” “Is the recitation of adhan an evil act?” they asked him. “No, but I shall not recite it from the top of the minaret.” When they sought to know the reason for his refusal, he said, “This minaret is a place that has caused my two wretched brothers to die without faith.

I was near my eldest brother when he was breathing his last and I desired to recite the Surat Yasin to ease the agony of his death, but he prohibited me from reciting it. “The second brother too departed from the world in the same manner. In order to know the reason for this problem, Allah graced me and I saw my eldest brother in my dream, in a state of chastisement.

I said to him: ‘I shall not leave you till you tell me what caused both of you to die without faith?’ He said: ‘Whenever we ascended the minaret, we would look at the womenfolk in the people’s houses, without shame and modesty.