فَلَمّا جاوَزا قالَ لِفَتاهُ آتِنا غَداءَنا لَقَد لَقينا مِن سَفَرِنا هٰذا نَصَبًا

So when they had passed on, he said to his lad: ‘Bring us our meal. We have certainly encountered much fatigue on this journey of ours.’

EXEGESIS

Ghadāʾ (meal) refers to food one has at lunch time or before that, early in the day.^{‎[1]Tibyan, 7/68; Nemuneh, 12/483.}

EXPOSITION

So when they had passed on: they had earlier reached the confluence of the two seas and had camped for a while at the rock. Seeing no sign of the man he was supposed to meet, Moses (a) acted true to his word: I will go on [journeying] until I have reached the confluence of the two seas, or have spent a long time [travelling] (verse 60) and continued to travel.

He said to his lad: ‘Bring us our meal, We have certainly encountered much fatigue on this journey of ours’: his exclamation that fatigue has overcome him perhaps carries a hint of frustration in its tone. Yet that very exclamation was to lead to the discovery of what they were looking for.

Lastly, we may note the usage of the elongated ā sound in the word endings of this and the previous verse, such as the third person duals and the first person plurals and other words. This appears fourteen times^{‎[2]Falammā – balaghā – baynihimā – nasiyā – ḥūtahumā – sarabā – falammā – jāwazā – ātinā – ghadāʾnā – laqīnā – safarinā – hādhā – naṣabā.} in the two verses, which not only makes them pleasing in recitation, but is also almost onomatopoeic in its conveyance of the two men trudging along the windy coastline accompanied by the sound of waves, swaying with each stride.

REVIEW OF TAFSĪR LITERATURE

It is said that the tiredness and hunger that overcame Moses (a) was miraculous, and that is why he asked for the fish.^{‎[3]Zamakhshari, 2/732. See also Tabari, 15/178; Thalabi, 6/181.} It is claimed he did not feel any hunger before that, some even claiming that he travelled for forty days before that.^{‎[4]See for example Muhit, 7/202; Alusi, 8/298, who traces this to a prophetic report he considers authentic.}

The final statement of this verse has been used as evidence that one is allowed to declare their discomfort or pain to others and doing so does not constitute being unsatisfied with the decree of God.^{‎[5]Qurtubi, 11/14.}

[1] Tibyan, 7/68; Nemuneh, 12/483.
[2] Falammā – balaghā – baynihimā – nasiyā – ḥūtahumā – sarabā – falammā – jāwazā – ātinā – ghadāʾnā – laqīnā – safarinā – hādhā – naṣabā.
[3] Zamakhshari, 2/732. See also Tabari, 15/178; Thalabi, 6/181.
[4] See for example Muhit, 7/202; Alusi, 8/298, who traces this to a prophetic report he considers authentic.
[5] Qurtubi, 11/14.