وَلَمَّا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُۥ وَٱسْتَوَىٰٓ ءَاتَيْنَٰهُ حُكْمًۭا وَعِلْمًۭا ۚ وَكَذَٰلِكَ نَجْزِى ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
When he came of age and became fully matured, We gave him judgement and knowledge, and thus do We reward the virtuous.
وَدَخَلَ ٱلْمَدِينَةَ عَلَىٰ حِينِ غَفْلَةٍۢ مِّنْ أَهْلِهَا فَوَجَدَ فِيهَا رَجُلَيْنِ يَقْتَتِلَانِ هَٰذَا مِن شِيعَتِهِۦ وَهَٰذَا مِنْ عَدُوِّهِۦ ۖ فَٱسْتَغَٰثَهُ ٱلَّذِى مِن شِيعَتِهِۦ عَلَى ٱلَّذِى مِنْ عَدُوِّهِۦ فَوَكَزَهُۥ مُوسَىٰ فَقَضَىٰ عَلَيْهِ ۖ قَالَ هَٰذَا مِنْ عَمَلِ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ عَدُوٌّۭ مُّضِلٌّۭ مُّبِينٌۭ
[One day] he entered the city at a time when its people were not likely to take notice. He found there two men fighting, this one from among his followers, and that one from his enemies. The one who was from his followers sought his help against him who was from his enemies. So Moses hit him with his fist, whereupon he expired. He said, ‘This is of Satan’s doing. Indeed he is clearly a misguiding enemy.’
قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّى ظَلَمْتُ نَفْسِى فَٱغْفِرْ لِى فَغَفَرَ لَهُۥٓ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلْغَفُورُ ٱلرَّحِيمُ
He said, ‘My Lord! I have wronged myself. Forgive me!’ So He forgave him. Indeed, He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful.
قَالَ رَبِّ بِمَآ أَنْعَمْتَ عَلَىَّ فَلَنْ أَكُونَ ظَهِيرًۭا لِّلْمُجْرِمِينَ
He said, ‘My Lord! As You have blessed me, I will never be a supporter of the guilty.’
فَأَصْبَحَ فِى ٱلْمَدِينَةِ خَآئِفًۭا يَتَرَقَّبُ فَإِذَا ٱلَّذِى ٱسْتَنصَرَهُۥ بِٱلْأَمْسِ يَسْتَصْرِخُهُۥ ۚ قَالَ لَهُۥ مُوسَىٰٓ إِنَّكَ لَغَوِىٌّۭ مُّبِينٌۭ
He rose at dawn in the city, fearful and vigilant, when behold, the one who had sought his help the day before, shouted for his help [once again]. Moses said to him, ‘You are indeed clearly perverse!’
فَلَمَّآ أَنْ أَرَادَ أَن يَبْطِشَ بِٱلَّذِى هُوَ عَدُوٌّۭ لَّهُمَا قَالَ يَٰمُوسَىٰٓ أَتُرِيدُ أَن تَقْتُلَنِى كَمَا قَتَلْتَ نَفْسًۢا بِٱلْأَمْسِ ۖ إِن تُرِيدُ إِلَّآ أَن تَكُونَ جَبَّارًۭا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَمَا تُرِيدُ أَن تَكُونَ مِنَ ٱلْمُصْلِحِينَ
But when he wanted to strike him who was an enemy of both of them, he said, ‘Moses, do you want to kill me, just like the one you killed yesterday? You only want to be a tyrant in the land, and you do not desire to be one who brings about reform.’
وَجَآءَ رَجُلٌۭ مِّنْ أَقْصَا ٱلْمَدِينَةِ يَسْعَىٰ قَالَ يَٰمُوسَىٰٓ إِنَّ ٱلْمَلَأَ يَأْتَمِرُونَ بِكَ لِيَقْتُلُوكَ فَٱخْرُجْ إِنِّى لَكَ مِنَ ٱلنَّٰصِحِينَ
There came a man from the city outskirts, hurrying. He said, ‘Moses! The elite are indeed conspiring to kill you. So leave. I am indeed your well-wisher.’
فَخَرَجَ مِنْهَا خَآئِفًۭا يَتَرَقَّبُ ۖ قَالَ رَبِّ نَجِّنِى مِنَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
So he left the city, fearful and vigilant. He said, ‘My Lord! Deliver me from the wrongdoing lot.’
وَلَمَّا تَوَجَّهَ تِلْقَآءَ مَدْيَنَ قَالَ عَسَىٰ رَبِّىٓ أَن يَهْدِيَنِى سَوَآءَ ٱلسَّبِيلِ
And when he turned his face toward Midian, he said, ‘Maybe my Lord will show me the right way.’
وَلَمَّا وَرَدَ مَآءَ مَدْيَنَ وَجَدَ عَلَيْهِ أُمَّةًۭ مِّنَ ٱلنَّاسِ يَسْقُونَ وَوَجَدَ مِن دُونِهِمُ ٱمْرَأَتَيْنِ تَذُودَانِ ۖ قَالَ مَا خَطْبُكُمَا ۖ قَالَتَا لَا نَسْقِى حَتَّىٰ يُصْدِرَ ٱلرِّعَآءُ ۖ وَأَبُونَا شَيْخٌۭ كَبِيرٌۭ
When he arrived at the well of Midian, he found there a throng of people watering [their flocks], and he found, besides them, two women holding back [their flock]. He said, ‘What is your business?’ They said, ‘We do not water [our flock] until the shepherds have driven out [their flocks], and our father is an aged man.’
فَسَقَىٰ لَهُمَا ثُمَّ تَوَلَّىٰٓ إِلَى ٱلظِّلِّ فَقَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّى لِمَآ أَنزَلْتَ إِلَىَّ مِنْ خَيْرٍۢ فَقِيرٌۭ
So he watered [their flock] for them. Then he withdrew toward the shade and said, ‘My Lord! I am indeed in need of any good You may send down to me!’
فَجَآءَتْهُ إِحْدَىٰهُمَا تَمْشِى عَلَى ٱسْتِحْيَآءٍۢ قَالَتْ إِنَّ أَبِى يَدْعُوكَ لِيَجْزِيَكَ أَجْرَ مَا سَقَيْتَ لَنَا ۚ فَلَمَّا جَآءَهُۥ وَقَصَّ عَلَيْهِ ٱلْقَصَصَ قَالَ لَا تَخَفْ ۖ نَجَوْتَ مِنَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
Then one of the two women approached him, walking bashfully. She said, ‘Indeed my father invites you to pay you the wages for watering [our flock] for us.’ So when he came to him and recounted the story to him, he said, ‘Do not be afraid. You have been delivered from the wrongdoing lot.’
قَالَتْ إِحْدَىٰهُمَا يَٰٓأَبَتِ ٱسْتَـْٔجِرْهُ ۖ إِنَّ خَيْرَ مَنِ ٱسْتَـْٔجَرْتَ ٱلْقَوِىُّ ٱلْأَمِينُ
One of the two women said, ‘Father, hire him. Indeed the best you can hire is a powerful and trustworthy man.’
قَالَ إِنِّىٓ أُرِيدُ أَنْ أُنكِحَكَ إِحْدَى ٱبْنَتَىَّ هَٰتَيْنِ عَلَىٰٓ أَن تَأْجُرَنِى ثَمَٰنِىَ حِجَجٍۢ ۖ فَإِنْ أَتْمَمْتَ عَشْرًۭا فَمِنْ عِندِكَ ۖ وَمَآ أُرِيدُ أَنْ أَشُقَّ عَلَيْكَ ۚ سَتَجِدُنِىٓ إِن شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ مِنَ ٱلصَّٰلِحِينَ
He said, ‘Indeed I desire to marry you to one of these two daughters of mine, on condition that you hire yourself to me for eight years. And if you complete ten, that will be up to you, and I do not want to be hard on you. God willing, you will find me to a righteous person.’
قَالَ ذَٰلِكَ بَيْنِى وَبَيْنَكَ ۖ أَيَّمَا ٱلْأَجَلَيْنِ قَضَيْتُ فَلَا عُدْوَٰنَ عَلَىَّ ۖ وَٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ مَا نَقُولُ وَكِيلٌۭ
He said, ‘This will be [by consent] between you and me. Whichever of the two terms I complete, there shall be no imposition upon me, and Allah is witness over what we say.’
English translation: Ali Quli Qarai
Triangulated from: enlightening_commentary, tabatabai_al_mizan, tabarsi_majma_al_bayan, tusi_al_tibyan, bahrani_al_burhan, qummi (all six present).
This long second movement carries the adult Moses from a fatal encounter in the city to his refuge and marriage in Midian — and it is the passage where the commentators wrestle hardest with a theological problem: how a prophet could kill a man and then confess wrongdoing.
The killing of the Copt (vv.15–16). All sources set the scene identically: Moses enters Egypt at a heedless hour, finds an Israelite ("of his party") and a Copt ("of his enemy") fighting, and fells the Copt with a single blow of his fist (wakz). The interpretive weight falls on Moses' cry, "This is of Satan's work," and then "My Lord, I have wronged myself." The Enlightening Commentary and the classical philology of al-Ṭabarsī and al-Ṭūsī read it as regret over a hasty act that endangered him. But the distinctively Imāmī reading — required by the doctrine of prophetic infallibility (ʿiṣma) — is stated most sharply in the narration al-Baḥrānī and al-Ṭabāṭabāʾī both cite: al-Riḍā before al-Maʾmūn explained that "of Satan's work" refers to the fight between the two men, not Moses' act, that Moses killed the enemy "by the decree of God," and that "I have wronged myself" means "I put myself out of place by entering this city; forgive me = conceal me from Your enemies." al-Ṭūsī frames the same conclusion juristically: the killing "was not ugly," but hastening it was "leaving the more preferable." al-Mīzān gives the reasoned version: the wakz was an accidental (khaṭaʾ) killing of a wrongful unbeliever — not a sin, since Moses is of the sincere whom Satan cannot reach — so the "forgiveness" sought is deliverance from the deed's danger (he cross-refers to 20:40, "We delivered you from grief").
The covenant (v.17). "By the favour You have shown me, I will never be a backer of the guilty." al-Ṭabarsī draws the ethical rule that aiding wrongdoers is itself a crime (his ʿAṭāʾ b. Abī Rabāḥ anecdote about a clerk for an oppressor). al-Mīzān deepens it: "the favour" is the divine walāya (as in Fātiḥa and 4:69), and the "guilty" are the likes of Pharaoh, not the Israelite.
Flight and the believer of Pharaoh's house (vv.18–21). The next day the same Israelite calls again; Moses rebukes him as a ghawī (errant); when Moses moves against the Copt, the man's panicked words expose Moses as yesterday's killer. All sources — vividly Qummī — identify the warner "from the farthest part of the city" as the concealed believer of Pharaoh's house (Ḥizqīl; Qummī says the treasurer who hid his faith six hundred years, tying it to Ghāfir 28).
Midian (vv.22–28). Moses turns to Midian trusting divine guidance ("Maybe my Lord will guide me to the even path"), waters the two women's flock — the sources embellish with the stone only ten men could lift — and utters "My Lord, I am in need of whatever good You send me." Here the narrations converge: Qummī, al-Baḥrānī and al-Mīzān all preserve ʿAlī's testimony that "by God, he asked only for bread," eating desert herbs until the green showed through his belly. al-Mīzān alone nuances it (the "good" is the God-given strength he wished to sustain). The bashful daughter's invitation, her verdict "the best you can hire is the strong and trustworthy" (strength from the watering, trust from his lowered gaze), and Shuʿayb's marriage offer of eight-to-ten years' service follow. The Ahl al-Bayt narrations in Qummī, al-Baḥrānī and al-Mīzān agree that Moses fulfilled the longer, ten-year term, consummated the marriage before it ended, and married the daughter who had invited him — and al-Mīzān notes the telling word ḥijaj ("pilgrimages," not "years") proves the Hajj was already practised. The whole passage thus reads, across all six sources, as the patient answering of Moses' successive prayers — deliverance, guidance, provision, and rest.