Episode 9: Examples of the prophets' shyness (peace and blessings be upon them)

Shyness of Moses (peace be upon him)

The two sheikhs [al-Bukhari and Muslim] produced [a hadeeth] according to Abu Hurairah (may Allah be pleased with him): that the prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said: (The Israelites used to bathe naked while looking at each other, and Moses (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) used to bathe alone, and so they said: "By Allah, nothing is preventing Moses from bathing with us, unless he has [swelling in the testicles]⁽¹⁾".  He once went to bathe and put his garment on a rock, then the rock fled with his garment and Moses came out [of the water] after its tracks saying "Oh rock, my garment", until  the Israelites looked at Moses and said: "By Allah, there is nothing wrong with Moses", then he took his garment and started beating on the rock), and so Abu Hurairah said: "By Allah, there are six or seven scars on the rock from the beatings^"(2).

Shyness of Mohammad (may Allah bless him and grant him peace)

The prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was very shy.  In fact, he was shyer than a virgin in her khidr [(An Arabic word for a covered place deep in the home used as quarters for virgin girls)].  According to Abu Saeed al-Khudri, he said: (The prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was shyer than a virgin in her khidr, and when he sees something he dislikes, we would know it from [the look on] his face)⁽³⁾.

1)  The original Arabic word in the hadeeth is "Aadar".

2) Bukhari #278; Muslim #339.

3) Bukhari #6102; Muslim #2320.

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