When Allah (SWT) informed Musa (AS) that there was someone who knew what he did not, Musa (AS) responded by saying, “O Allah, show me how to get to him. I will do whatever it takes to find him.” Allah (SWT) showed him the way and gave him specific instructions. Allah (SWT) told him to start walking in a certain direction, along the seaside, and he would reach a place where two oceans met. This was the first sign of where he would find this person. The other thing that he was told to do was to take a whole fish, roasted or baked, put it in a basket and take it along with him on the journey. Musa (AS) took his student, Yusha (AS), known in English as Joshua, and told him on the journey, “I am going to stay this course until I reach the spot which Allah (SWT) has told me. I will either find my teacher or spend years looking for him.” This is the determination Musa (AS) had right in the beginning of the journey. Why was Musa (AS) so determined to meet this person? Because he knew that, if he was able to meet him, that would have became his way of showing Allah (SWT) that he was humble and that he did not think he knew more than he did , and that he would have done whatever it took to please Allah (SWT). This is the best motivation a person can have – the motivation to do whatever it takes to make their lord happy.
Musa (AS) took his student on this journey, and they travelled and travelled along the coast. At one point, there were some rocky hills, and they stopped to take a rest. Musa (AS) was told, “A time will come where you will lose this fish. When you lose it, come back to where you lost it, and you will find the person you are looking for.” Musa (AS) was resting along with Yusha, and somehow, miraculously, the fish came back to life, and it jumped out of the basket and plunged into the ocean. It started to swim away, and as it started swimming, the ripples made from the wake of the swimming fish hardened, as if they were made of rock. As it continued, a tunnel formed behind it, and as it split the water, a tunnel formed around it It continued. At one point, when they woke up, they said, “We must keep going. We have a lot of land to cover.” They continued along the shore, and Musa (AS) said, “Where is our food? I am exhausted and famished.” Yusha (AS) said, “I forgot to tell you that the fish that we had taken along with us jumped out and escaped near the rocky hills. I could not remember before, as it was such a miraculous thing. Shaytan made me forget.” Allah (SWT) describes this fish and the way the water parted, saying, “It made a tunnel in the water.” Musa (AS) looked at the tunnel over the horizon, and when they investigated it, they saw that the tunnel went as far as the eye could see. They traced the tunnel in the water all the way back to the spot, and when they reached the spot, there was an elderly man sitting where the fish had jumped out of the basket, with his head covered in a cloth. Musa (AS) said, “This is the man I am looking for, and the man Allah (SWT) has told me will teach me about what I do not know.”
