{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/mos07.htm","path":"isl/pro/mos07.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/mos07.htm","text":"Sacred Texts\u00a0\nIslam\u00a0\nIndex\u00a0\nPrevious\u00a0\nNext\u00a0\nTaking Off The Shoes in The Valley of Tuwa\nIt is mentioned that Al-Mahdi (PUH), the awaited, may our souls be a ransom\nto him, was asked about God's commandment for Moses to take off his shoes\nby saying: So take off thy shoes, for lo! thou art in the holy valley of\nTuwa(TaHa:12), so the one asking said: the scholars of the two creeds [he\ndid not appoint which creeds at that time] say that this commandment was\nbecause it (the shoes) were made of skin (of the dead animals), so he (PUH)\nsaid what was in general like: whoever said that had made lies about Moses\nand did not know truely his prophecy, because such matter has two relative\nconditions: either the prayers of Moses was accepted, or it was not accepted,\nso if praying with it (the shoes of skin) was accepted and allowed, then\nit is allowed for Moses to wear it also in that holy spot even if it was\na sacred place, and if praying was not allowed with it then they had pointed\nout that Moses knows nothing about the allowed and what is not allowed\nand how the prayer is accepted and how it is not, and this is a disbelieve.\nSo then the one asking said: then I said to him (PUH): O master then what\nis the interpretation of this? So he (PUH) said: Moses was in the holy\nvalley and he showed to his Lord the absolute love and sincerity and the\ngreat happiness for speaking to Him without a medium betweem both of them\nand for making him a messanger to the pharaoh that he was afraid of him\nand of his people, so then God said to him: if you are truely loving Me\nand sincere then take off your shoes meaning take off the love of your\nfamily and people and make it all to Me and do not make it busy with something\nelse, Allah hath not assigned unto any man two hearts within his body(Al-Ahz\u00e2b:4).\nIt is mentioned that Moses loved his wife so much and he left her with\nher birth pains without someone to take care of her in coldness and in\nwilderness, and went on searching for fire and then he met that great happiness.\nIt is mentioned in Torah that Moses (PUH) had a son and he called Gershom,\nand it is a name that gives a feeling of being strange. We have the right\nto talk about the matter of taking off the shoes and talk about what is\napparent and understood in the regulations of those who regulate, and that\nthe commandment from Him, the Exalted, to take off the shoes was to be\npolite in that holy spot, and because he (Moses) was in front of the Great\nof heavens and earth and their Creator, and he was talking to the One that\nhas everything in His hands and He is the Resurrector and the Eternal,\nthe Lord of angels and the soul, so in that situation Moses even should\nhave crawled on his knees and prostrate on the live coal for the God of\nthe worlds, with addition of taking of the shoes, and he should have forget\nabout everything else and only work his heart and his senses with his real\nLord and his Creator that speaks to him, and being with bare foots is a\nsign of humiliation, and to get the bless from the soil of the holy spot,\nand for this reason the old faithful people used to pilgrimage around Kaaba\nwith bare foots. Then Moses wore his shoes like everyone else to protect\nhis feet from being polluted and against insects and shocks from rocks\nand thorns and so on, and maybe God ordered him to take them off because\nHe made him safe in that spot and He told him about the purity of that\nspot.\nIt is mentioned that once the prophet (PUH) was asked: why the valley\nof Tuwa was called the holy valley? He said: because in it the souls were\nsanctified and the angels were chosen and there God spoke to Moses. As\nattributed to Ibn-`Abb\u00e2s about the meaning of the mount of Sinai\nhe said that it is every mountain that has olive trees on it or any other\nfruitful trees that people might use, and every mountain that has such\ncharacteristics is called the mount of Sinai , and if it has nothing that\npeople might use of plants or trees it would not be called by this name\nbut only called a mountain, so we say: language is the source whenever\nwe doubt about the meaning of something in the language, and the holy phrases\nthat point out to this matter are a lot, and in the chapter of TaHa: Hath\nthere come unto thee the story of Moses ? When he saw a fire and said unto\nhis folk: Lo! Wait! I see a fire afar off. Peradventure I may bring you\na brand therefrom or may find guidance at the fire.And when he reached\nit, he was called by name: O Moses! Lo! I, even I, am thy Lord, So take\noff thy shoes, for lo! thou art in the holy valley of Tuwa(TaHa:9-12),\nand the holy phrases are a lot in many chapters: Al-Qasas, Al-Forq\u00e2n,\nAl-Shu`ar\u00e2', Al-Sajdah, Al-N\u00e2zi`\u00e2t, and others, and they\ninterpret each other, and its matter is not hidden from the sacred faith\nand its people.\nNext: Moses Entering Egypt After Sending Him With His Brother Aaron","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: Taking Off The Shoes in The Valley of Tuwa","type":"page"}