They then set out…

77. ﴾They then set out until when they came to the people of a village, they asked them for food, but they refused to offer them hospitality. They found in it a wall wanting to collapse, so he [the servant] rebuilt it so [Moses] said, “If you had wished, you could have taken a wage in exchange for it.”

78. He answered, “This is a parting between me and you. I will tell you the interpretation of that about which you were not able to have patience.”﴿

If Moses pbuh had not said,

﴾“If I ask you about a thing after this, do not keep me in your company, you would then have been fully excused from me.”﴿,

the Virtuous Servant would have continued with Moses pbuh, and if Moses pbuh objected, he would only inform him as he did in the first and the second instance.

But eventually, the Virtuous Servant, who was not from this world nor did he eat food,^[1] had to leave Moses pbuh and Joshua pbuh, whose hunger overwhelmed them, so they could take their share of comfort and food. They had started their journey with the Virtuous Servant while they were at the height of fatigue and hunger,

62. ﴾So when they had passed [a distance], Moses said to his lad, “Bring us our lunch, we verily have found fatigue from this journey of ours.”

63. He [his lad] said, “Did you see when we took shelter at the rock? I forgot the fish, and none but Satan made me forget to remember it. And it took its course through the sea in a strange way.”﴿,

meaning that their lunch had gone into the sea and they ate nothing from it, and they continued their journey without food because the Virtuous Servant did not eat food. Therefore Moses pbuh had nothing before him but hunger, and in hunger there is much good.

Al-Sadiq pbuh said,

A fullness of a stomach draws a worshipper away from Allah swt, the servant is nearest to Allah swt if his stomach is light, and the servant is most despised by Allah swt when his stomach is full.^[2]

And Al-Sadiq pbuh said,

The servant is nearest to Allah swt if his stomach is light.^[3]

There is Divine wisdom in the fact that the food of Moses and Joshua in this journey was hunger. And at the end of the journey and at its third and final incident, Moses pbuh and Joshua pbuh had no choice but to ask for food from the people of the village so that they could continue with the knowledgeable one and would have the strength to set out with him,

﴾They then set out until when they came to the people of a village, they asked them for food, but they refused to offer them hospitality.﴿.

And because hunger has exhausted him, Moses pbuh could not even remain quiet and he repeated his request for food when the Virtuous Servant built the wall, and he pbuh told the Virtuous Servant, “You could have asked for food for Joshua pbuh and I in exchange for what you built,”

﴾so [Moses] said, “If you had wished, you could have taken a wage in exchange for it.”﴿.

At that time, the knowledgeable one (the Virtuous Servant) had no choice but to leave Moses pbuh and Joshua pbuh because they were exhausted due to hunger and fatigue.

Abu Abdullah pbuh said regarding the words of Moses pbuh to his lad,

﴾Bring us our lunch﴿

and his words,

24. ﴾My Lord, I am in need of whatever good You send down for me.﴿

-Surat Al-Qasas (The Story) 28.

he pbuh said,

He rather meant food.

And Abu Abdullah pbuh said,

Moses pbuh was verily a man of hunger on several occasions.^[4]

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