The Characters of the Journey

The Characters of the Journey

The First is the Virtuous Servant. Moses mentioned him by saying,

60. ﴾And when Moses said to his lad, “I will not give up until I reach the junction of the two seas or I spend years and years in search of it.”﴿,

meaning that the Quran has named him the junction of the two seas, and details about this character will be mentioned.

The Second is Moses pbuh, a prophet from Uli Al-Azem^[1] from the messengers. He is the main and prominent character who requires no further definition, and the journey is sealed by his name pbuh.

The Third is Joshua bin Noon pbuh who was called a lad,

﴾Moses said to his lad﴿,

and this naming has exclusivity, as what is meant by lad is the strongly-built brave one. Just as the Quran named Joshua the lad, Gabriel pbuh also cried,

There is no lad except Ali.

And Ali bin Abi Talib pbuh is known for how he opened the fortresses and killed the heroes of the disbelievers. And also, this lad Joshua, it is not hidden that he is the one who entered the Holy Land after the death of Moses pbuh and led the children of Israel after Moses pbuh; therefore, Joshua bin Noon is the successor of Moses pbuh who led the children of Israel after the death of Moses pbuh, fought the disbelievers, opened the cities of disbelief, and spread the religion of Allah in the Holy Land.

Abu Hamza narrated that Abu Jafar pbuh said,

Moses bin Imran’s pbuh successor was Joshua bin Noon, and he is his lad that Allah mentioned in His book.^[2]

And the role of Joshua pbuh ended when Moses pbuh met the Virtuous Servant, and he stayed as an observing companion learning from what he sees, and he had no independent stance; rather his positions corresponded to, were identical to, and followed the positions of Moses pbuh. This is why Allah mentioned in the Quran both Moses pbuh and the Virtuous Servant without Joshua pbuh, as he did not have a role in this journey,

﴾So they both set out, until when they were on the ship… They then set out until when they came across a young man… They then set out until when they came to the people of a village…﴿.

As for the reason for Joshua pbuh coming with Moses pbuh, it is because he is his successor and Khalifa after his death. Therefore his presence was coming from wisdom, to learn with Moses pbuh from the Virtuous Servant. In fact his absence from this meeting, for no weighty reason, goes against wisdom, because it is wasting an available opportunity in which Joshua pbuh can learn.

It is for certain that teaching the successor and preparing him to take his messaging role is an essential weighty matter, especially if this successor is like Joshua pbuh who will carry a great mission in the movement of the divine religion on this earth which is the opening of the Holy Land. And as much as it has temporal importance, it is of even greater importance in general in the movement of the Divine religion of Abraham which is against the other paths.

And it is known to many people that the Divine movement of Abraham started from the east, from Ur-Now the city of Al-Nasiriyah-in Iraq and then ended to the west to the land of Egypt and Northern Africa. And Joshua pbuh was the leader of the first step of opening the Holy Land in the true resumption movement of Abraham to the East. This illuminates the importance of teaching Joshua pbuh, this divine leader chosen for this great mission. Therefore Joshua pbuh accompanying Moses pbuh is a necessity which must happen so that he pbuh learns, because he is the opener of the Holy Land and the possessor of the first step on the path of return, and he needs every lesson available to him pbuh.

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