THE PHRASE "maa madyana / water of madyan" appeared in surah Al Qasas 28:23 where traditionally it is narrated as part of Musa a.s. story when he arrived at Madyan from Mesir, he helped the two women (the daughters of Shuaib a.s.) to fetch water at the "water of madyan" for their flocks. This narrative formulated the word Madyan as a proper noun, a name after the place where the event occurred. To the contrary, one of the principles of reading to understand words of Al Quran (the GPS of reading Al Quran) is to formulate the meaning of the ismun (noun and adjective) and fiklun (action words or verb) by extracting and understanding the meaning of its root word.
In the case of the word Madyan which in quranic arabic compose of alphabets "mim dal ya nun", the root word is "day ya nun" with the prefix mim. The word deen / judgment come from the same root word. From the classical dictionary, we come to know that the root word "dal ya nun" carry the meaning of consciously obeying and submitting to the judgment (of Allah) because Ar Rahman and Ar Raheem is the Master / Possessor / Owner of the judgment as decreed in surah Al Fatehah 1:4. Meanwhile, the prefix "ma" represent a spiritual place that has established the deen. Psychologically, the word madyan can be understood as the deen that has been established in the mind of the insaan. The same meaning apply to the word "Medina".
Now, let us look at the verse surah Al Qasas 28:23.
And lamma / when (not yet) he arrived (and his thoughts in congruence with) at the maa madyan / fresh thoughts where the deen is established, there exist over him ummatan / those who adhere from an nas / the agitated mind accepting fresh thoughts and there exist from others, beside them two best prominent understanding in the background. He said, "what is that you two need ?" They said, "we are not able to get any water / fresh thoughts until others (ummatan from an nas / the agitated mind) dissolve. And we adopt / bring up our shaikh / the mind that is elderly in knowledge guided, honoured, most great.
wa ra da - arrived from a journey and his mind is in congruence with the universal truth. Literally, it is said that you have arrived at the water. Warada implies that there was a journey to arrive and he was committed to drink the water once arrived. The journey require sincerity, effort, struggle and self sacrifice to sustain. Wirid is a derivative from the same root word and wirid to arrive from a journey to attain revelation.
maa - literally maa is translated as water. Psychologically, water indicate good fresh revelation that give life to the soul. The soul / self / psyche is alive only and only when it receive and accept the revelation from his Rabb / Lord. When the soul / self / psyche stop receiving revelation, then it is considered dead.
madyan - the root word in this word is dal ya nun which carry the meaning of obedient and submission to Allah's judgment. So madyan psychologically means the deen that has been established in the mind of the insaan / one who is humane.
ummatan - those who adhere and obey what has been commanded. Adhere and obey likingly and willingly form the foundation for ummah to be at peace. Exposing our mind to conflict and argument wrapped by egoistic values will lead to agitation of the mind.
an nas - this word is from the root word nun waw sin which carry the meaning agitation, to and fro, uneasiness and state of commotion. Agitated mind is the mind that is limited and constrained by the ego and self interest that bar the mind from revealing its true nature. So an nas means the agitated mind that by nature will swiftly and hastily make decisions not based on clarity of the mind but based on agitation.
wajada - this word is from the root word wa ja da and this root word carry the meaning of experiential experience that is, where the self experience the reality of being / what is. Wujud is another derivative of the same root word. Wujud is not existence because existence signify in latin as existere which mean stand forth, come out, emerge or be visible. Thus existence in classical arabic means maujud.
abu - the attributes of a father to a child comprise providing security, nourishment, adopting, bring-up and education. To understand and to put this word abu in its context, we have to recognise the fatherly attributes rather than the father figure. These fatherly attributes will form the basis to support your struggle, sacrifice and effort towards achieving success.
shaikh - this word is from the root word shin ya kha and this root word carry the meaning of recognising one who is matured, elderly, knowledgeable and honoured. The respect and honour is attributable to those whose mind has the accumulation of knowledge and guidance from Allah's judgment. The ability to perform beautifully the fatherly attributes is also known as those with religious mind.
IN ORDER to be successful in the effort to contact and establish the link to receive and accept the revelation, one will have to struggle and disssolve the unwanted elements of the agitated mind which is clouding up the clarity of perception. So to perceive the truth with clarity and for the truth to be apparent and conceivable, all we have to do is to dissolve the unwanted and trivial elements from the agitated mind (that is, the modulations of thoughts from inputs of the senses and products of imagination) that has clouded our vision. The truth will prevail effortlessly when all the layers of limitations and constraints to its emergence has been dissolved and lifted.
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