Aslam

Musa is the most frequently mentioned prophet in the Quran. His story begins under the shadow of Pharaoh's tyranny. Pharaoh had enslaved the Children of Israel, killing their newborn sons and sparing their daughters. Into this darkness, Musa was born.

Allah inspired his mother: "Suckle him, but when you fear for him, cast him into the river and do not fear and do not grieve. Indeed, We will return him to you and will make him one of the messengers." She placed her baby in a basket on the Nile. The basket drifted to Pharaoh's palace, where his wife picked it up and said: "He will be a comfort to me and to you. Do not kill him. Perhaps he will benefit us, or we will adopt him as a son." And so Musa was raised in the house of the very tyrant who sought to destroy his people.

As a young man, Musa accidentally killed a man while defending an Israelite, and fled Egypt to the land of Madyan. There he found two women waiting to water their flock, held back by the crowd. He watered their flock for them, then sat in the shade and prayed: "My Lord, indeed I am, for whatever good You would send down to me, in need."

One of the women returned, walking shyly, and said her father invited him. Her father — the prophet Shu'ayb according to many scholars — offered Musa work and one of his daughters in marriage. Musa spent years in Madyan, tending flocks in the wilderness.

Then came the night that changed everything. Traveling with his family, Musa saw a fire on the side of Mount Tur. When he approached it, a voice called out: "O Musa, indeed I am Allah, Lord of the worlds. Throw down your staff." When he threw it, it became a serpent, moving as if alive. Musa turned to flee. "O Musa, approach and do not fear. Indeed, you are of the secure." Allah then told him to put his hand into his garment — it came out white and radiant. Two signs. Then the mission: "Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed."

Musa asked Allah for help: "My Lord, expand for me my breast, ease for me my task, and untie the knot from my tongue that they may understand my speech. And appoint for me a minister from my family — Harun, my brother." Allah granted all of it.

Musa and Harun went to Pharaoh and delivered the message: worship Allah alone and free the Children of Israel. Pharaoh was defiant: "Who is the Lord of the worlds?" Musa showed him the signs — the staff became a serpent, his hand shone white. Pharaoh called it sorcery and summoned his magicians. But when the magicians saw Musa's staff swallow their tricks, they fell into prostration: "We believe in the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of Musa and Harun."

Pharaoh was furious. He increased the persecution. Allah sent plague after plague upon Egypt — flood, locusts, lice, frogs, blood — but each time Pharaoh promised to relent, then broke his word.

Finally, Allah commanded Musa to lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt by night. Pharaoh pursued them with his army. When they reached the sea, the people cried out in despair — the sea before them, the army behind. Musa said: "No! Indeed, with me is my Lord; He will guide me."

Allah commanded: "Strike the sea with your staff." The sea split apart, each side like a towering mountain, with a dry path between. The Children of Israel crossed. When Pharaoh and his army followed, the sea closed upon them. As he was drowning, Pharaoh cried out: "I believe that there is no deity except that in whom the Children of Israel believe." But it was too late.

Allah said: "Now? And you had disobeyed before and were of the corrupters? So today We will save you in body that you may be to those who succeed you a sign." Pharaoh's body was preserved — a sign for all who would come after.

After crossing the sea, the Children of Israel came upon a people devoted to idols. They said to Musa: "Make for us a god just as they have gods." Musa was appalled: "Indeed, you are a people behaving ignorantly. What they are engaged in is destined for destruction, and worthless is what they used to do." He reminded them that Allah had favoured them above all nations.

Allah summoned Musa to Mount Sinai for forty nights to receive the Torah. Before leaving, Musa appointed his brother Harun in charge: "Take my place among my people, do right, and do not follow the way of the corrupters."

But in his absence, a man named Samiri collected gold jewellery from the people, melted it down, and fashioned a golden calf that made a lowing sound. The people began worshipping it. Harun warned them: "O my people, you are only being tested by it, and indeed your Lord is the Most Merciful, so follow me and obey my command." They said: "We will never cease being devoted to it until Musa returns to us."

When Musa returned and saw his people worshipping the calf, he was filled with rage and grief. He threw down the tablets of the Torah and seized his brother by the head, pulling him toward him. Harun cried: "O son of my mother, indeed the people overpowered me and were about to kill me. So let not the enemies rejoice over me and do not place me among the wrongdoing people."

Musa turned to Samiri: "And what is your case, O Samiri?" Samiri said he had seen what others did not see — he had taken a handful of dust from the trace of the angel Jibril's horse and thrown it into the molten gold. "And thus did my soul entice me," he said. Musa declared: "Then go. And indeed, it is for you in this life to say, 'No contact.' And indeed, you have an appointment in the Hereafter you will never fail to keep. And look at your god to which you remained devoted. We will surely burn it and blow it into the sea with a blast."

Musa then prayed: "My Lord, forgive me and my brother and admit us into Your mercy, for You are the most merciful of the merciful."

Musa chose seventy men from his people to come to Mount Sinai to repent before Allah. When they arrived, they were seized by a violent earthquake. Musa pleaded: "My Lord, if You had willed, You could have destroyed them before and me as well. Would You destroy us for what the foolish among us have done? This is not but Your trial by which You send astray whom You will and guide whom You will. You are our Protector, so forgive us and have mercy upon us; and You are the best of forgivers."

Allah prescribed for them good in this world and in the Hereafter. He told Musa: "My punishment — I afflict with it whom I will, but My mercy encompasses all things."

The Children of Israel were commanded to enter the Holy Land. Musa said: "O my people, enter the Holy Land which Allah has assigned to you and do not turn back, or you will become losers." But the people were afraid of the inhabitants and refused: "O Musa, indeed within it is a people of tyrannical strength, and indeed, we will never enter it until they leave it. But if they leave it, then we will enter."

Two righteous men among them urged: "Enter upon them through the gate, for when you have entered it, you will be predominant. And upon Allah rely, if you should be believers." But the people still refused: "O Musa, indeed we will not enter it, ever, as long as they are within it; so go, you and your Lord, and fight. Indeed, we are remaining right here."

Musa, in despair, prayed: "My Lord, indeed I do not possess except myself and my brother, so part us from the defiantly disobedient people." Allah declared that the land would be forbidden to them for forty years, during which they would wander in the earth.

During their years in the wilderness, the Children of Israel constantly tested Musa's patience. They complained about the food Allah provided — manna and quails — saying: "O Musa, we can never endure one kind of food. So call upon your Lord to bring forth for us from the earth its green herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils and its onions." Musa said: "Would you exchange what is better for what is less?"

They were also commanded not to fish on the Sabbath, but some of them devised tricks to catch fish. They were told to slaughter a cow as a sacrifice, but kept asking questions to delay and complicate a simple command until it became nearly impossible.

Despite all of this, Musa remained steadfast. He is the prophet Allah spoke to directly — Kalimullah. When Musa asked to see Allah, he was told: "You will not see Me, but look at the mountain; if it should remain in its place, then you will see Me." When Allah revealed Himself to the mountain, it crumbled to dust, and Musa fell unconscious. When he awoke, he said: "Exalted are You! I have repented to You, and I am the first of the believers."