See, what happened when Hazrat Musa (Alaihis Salaam)’s one sheep ran away from its flock. I am not narrating this incident from any Urdu digest. Allamah Alusi, in Tafseer Ruhul Ma’aani, as well as other commentators of Qur’an write that when a sheep ran away from its flock, Hazrat Musa (Alaihis Salaam) ran behind it. Every Nabi was made to herd sheep so that the ability of patience could be created in the heart, since herding sheep is a difficult task. They run away very quickly making the shepherd helpless. Allah Ta'ala trains the Ambiya (Alaihimus Salaam) by means of sheep first so that they can serve their Ummat (nation). Thereafter, when the sheep escaped, Hazrat Musa (Alaihis Salaam) ran behind it, until eventually his feet became blistered, thorns pricked him and blood began flowing. The blood of the forthcoming Nabi is flowing. After chasing it for miles, he caught it. Tell me, if it was us then what would we have done? We would have hit it, lift it up and thrown it down, and then slaughtered it.

My teacher of Hadith, Hazrat Maulana Abdul Qayyum Saheb (Rahmatullah Alaihe), who qualified in Deoband, narrated this incident. A man heard that he will be married to such a woman who was very ill-natured and who would easily become angry. He said, “I will cure her.” When he went to her house to get her, he took along a goat. On the way back, the goat raised its voice. He hit the goat and said, “If you say ‘me’ again, I will hit you.” The wife sitting in the carriage thought to herself, “If he is hitting this goat who is making ‘me’ ‘me’, then how much will he hit me? When the goat raised its voice again, he hit it harder and bellowed, “you unworthy animal, keep quiet or else I will slaughter you,” After hitting it the third or fourth time, he reached close to his house. When the goat blared again, he lifted it up, placed it on the floor and shouted, “O vile thing, you don’t want to listen. I have stopped you over and over. You are not coming right with beating. Now this is the only cure.” He then recited   ??? ????? ???? ????and slaughtered it, saying to himself, “O Allah! I will make my walimah with this. O Allah! I am slaughtering it with the intention of walimah. I am not doing it due to anger.” The following day, he had his walimah with the same meat. However, his wife was awe-stricken. She became obedient forever thereafter, and all her anger was removed.

As I was mentioning, when Hazrat Musa (Alaihis Salaam) got hold of this sheep he neither hit nor scolded it. In fact, he began crying and began removing the thorns which had penetrated it with his own hands. The hand of Nabuwwat is removing thorns from a sheep. Before removing the thorns from his own foot, he first removed the thorns from the sheep, and due to compassion, he continued crying, saying, “O sheep, if you did not have mercy on Musa, then at least you could have had mercy on yourself. What did you achieve by running so much? Finally, you were caught. You are full of thorns pricking you, and blood is flowing from you as well as me. If you did not have mercy for my blood then at least you should have showed mercy to yourself.” When the angels saw this quality of love and compassion in Hazrat Musa (Alaihis Salaam), then the divine creation requested Allah Ta’ala, “O Allah! This person seems to be worthy of becoming a Nabi.”