The Quran

142

Preface

۞ وَواعَدنا موسىٰ ثَلاثينَ لَيلَةً وَأَتمَمناها بِعَشرٍ فَتَمَّ ميقاتُ رَبِّهِ أَربَعينَ لَيلَةً ۚ وَقالَ موسىٰ لِأَخيهِ هارونَ اخلُفني في قَومي وَأَصلِح وَلا تَتَّبِع سَبيلَ المُفسِدينَ

Yusuf Ali

We appointed for Moses thirty nights, and completed (the period) with ten (more): thus was completed the term (of communion) with his Lord,¹ forty nights. And Moses had charged his brother Aaron (before he went up): “Act for me amongst my people: Do right, and follow not the way of those who do mischief.”²

The forty nights’ communion of Moses with God on the Mount may be compared with the forty-day fast of Jesus in the wilderness before he took up his ministry (Matt. 4:2), and with the forty years of Al Muṣṭafā’s preparation in life before he took up his Ministry. In each case the Prophets lived alone apart from their people, before they came into the full blaze of the events of their Ministry.
When for any reason the man of God is absent from his people, his duty of leadership (khildfah) should be taken up by his brother - not necessarily a bloodbrother, but one of his society or brotherhood. The deputy should discharge it in all humility, remembering three things: f 1) that he is only a deputy, and bound to follow the directions of his Principal, (2) that right and justice are the essence of power, and (3) that mischief gets its best chance to raise its head in the absence of the Principal, and that the deputy should always guard against the traps laid for him in the Principal’s absence.