{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/mos01.htm","path":"isl/pro/mos01.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/mos01.htm","text":"His honorable birth was in Egypt at the time of the tyrant pharaoh. It\nwas at a time when it was ordered to kill the children of Israelites, and\nhe (the pharaoh) ordered to separate between men and women by putting them\ninto the jails and captivated the women and made them as servants, and\nall of that was when they told him that there will be a child from the\nIsraelites that will destroy him with his kingdom, and they say that his\nmother was pregnant with him but her pregnancy did not show up until she\ngave birth to him, and the pharaoh at that time appointed coptic women\nfor the Israelites to keep an eye on them and kill every male born child\nand release the females to prevent what he was scared of, so when the mother\nof Moses gave birth to him and then she looked at him, she felt so sad\nfor him and knew that he would be killed, so she got confused and she thought\nabout it for many times until she came so despaired and she used to ask\nGod to make them unable to see him, but God threw his love in the heart\nof every one that would see him and when they knew about him and the coptic\nwoman came, her heart hanged on him and loved him and she said to his mother:\ndo not be afraid of me but keep him in secret and don't let any one see\nit save but me, so God said: And I endued thee with love from Me(Taha:39),\nand that was the reason for the coptic woman's love.\nThen God revealed the ark upon the mother of Moses and she was called\nto put him in the ark and throw him into the sea, or the Nile, and do not\nbe afraid or sad for We will give him back to you and We will make him\na prophet, then she knew that the One that called her is the One that revealed\nthe ark and it was her Lord, and she believed in what she was commanded\nto do and put Moses into the ark and closed it tightly then she threw him\ninto the Nile, then the tides played with the ark and the winds drove it\nto the front of the pharaoh's palace and he had many palaces in front of\nthe Nile, and he was with his family and some of his close people in that\npalace which the ark arrived to, so he took a loot at it while his wife\n\u00c2siyyah was with him, but he did not know what was it but he saw\nonly a dark spot into the Nile carried by the currents and winds, until\nshe brought him into the palace and the pharaoh ordered to open it and\nhe found a boy then he said: he is an israelite, and he wanted to kill\nhim but when he looked at him God throw his love into his heart, and so\n\u00c2siyyah loved him so much as well, but inspite of all of that the\nheart of the pharaoh felt the danger and wanted to kill him, so then his\nwife \u00c2siyyah said to him: Kill him not. Peradventure he may be of\nuse to us, or we may choose him for a son. And they perceived not(Al-Qasas:9).\nSome said as it is in Torah in summary: and during the storm that passed\nover the children of Israel in Egypt and the difficulties they are facing\nfrom the pharaohs and the humiliation with adversities because of the rulers\nof their time, and there were a hebrew man from the children of Israel\ncalled `Imr\u00e2n (in hebrew it is `Umr\u00e2m) ben F\u00e2hit ben\nLevi ben Jacob (PUH) [This suggests that the name mentioned in the beginning\nof this chapter was F\u00e2hit not F\u00e2hib, and it is equivalent to\nKohath] married a woman from his own family and she gave birth to Aaron\nand Moses, and after she gave birth to him she hided him from the eyes\nof those who seek the children of the children of Israel to kill their\nmales, so he stayed with her for three months, and when she got afraid\nfrom being discovered, God taught her to make a box-like figure and smear\nit with pitch and put the child into it and then throw it into the water\nand so she did and appointed his sister to watch it and follow its track,\nand she kept on guarding him and watching him until she knew that he got\ninto the palace of the pharaoh and that his wife loved him so much and\nkept him to be like her son for her and her husband the pharaoh.\nThat was a trick from God for Moses and his mother (PUT) and to make\nhim return to her because she will be his breastfeeder and take a wage\nfor this while she is safe from the evil of the pharaoh, and then God forbid\nhim to be feeded from the breasts of all other women and the pharaoh with\nhis wife tried hardly to get a woman that can feed him, but they did not\nreach any result, all of that while his sister were watching him and knew\neverything going on with them, and they became buffled about him, and his\nsister was following him wherever he was taken to, and when she saw their\ncondition she offered the pharaoh and his wife to call a hebrew woman to\nfeed him his enough and be like a mother for him, and the pharaoh paid\nfull attention to her and they sent her and so she came back with her and\nhis mother, and when she wanted to breastfeed him, he caught her breast\nin urgently, and so they told her to take care of Moses to breastfeed him\nunder her care with their great hopes in him.\nRead with me these holy phrases from the holy book of your Lord from\nthe chapter of Al-Qasas, He said: And We inspired the mother of Moses,\nsaying: Suckle him and, when thou fearest for him, then cast him into the\nriver and fear not nor grieve. Lo! We shall bring him back unto thee and\nshall make him (one) of Our messengers. And the family of Pharaoh took\nhim up, that he might become for them an enemy and a sorrow, Lo! Pharaoh\nand Haman and their hosts were ever sinning. And the wife of Pharaoh said:\n(He will be) a consolation for me and for thee. Kill him not. Peradventure\nhe may be of use to us, or we may choose him for a son. And they perceived\nnot. And the heart of the mother of Moses became void, and she would have\nbetrayed him if We had not fortified her heart, that she might be of the\nbelievers. And she said unto his sister: Trace him. So she observed him\nfrom afar, and they perceived not. And We had before forbidden foster-mothers\nfor him, so she said: Shall I show you a household who will rear him for\nyou and take care of him? So We restored him to his mother that she might\nbe comforted and not grieve, and that she might know that the promise of\nAllah is true. But most of them know not(Al-Qasas:7-13), and in the chapter\nof TaHa some phrases with the same meaning.\nIt is apparent that it was necessary for the pharaoh and his wife \u00c2siyyah\nor some of their followers and close people to notice Moses and ask for\nhim to look at, so his mother used to bring him or send him to them and\nthey used to check his education and his growing, not less than a bird\nthey caught or a deer or a slave that they bought for it was something\nnew and got into their seizing and they gave it to someone else to take\ncare of it and their hearts were hanged with him so for all of that they\nhad to check after him and check his condition and there is no doubt that\nthey used to send him the gifts and also to the one that used to care of\nhim, and it is in fact his mother, and then she must had took him back\nto the house of the pharaoh after completing the breastfeeding and then\nthey took care of him personally as they usually do with their children\nand teach him whatever they used to teach their children of their religion\nand worshipping and teach them the sense of their place among people and\nmake them special and honorable and make them responsible gradually, the\neasiest then the easier or the most important then the more important and\nso on.\nThen it was a habit for the kings at that time or at any time that\nthe children of the nobles was to be given to a special educator which\nmight be a religion man or priests and similar people to teach them and\neducate them with a special education, so the children of the nobles were\neducated in that manner by those people or as traditions suggest at that\ntime, for this we do not doubt about Moses being taught things that were\nadded to whatever God taught him in his old age of wisdom and religion\nwhere God says: And when he reached his full strength and was ripe, We\ngave him wisdom and knowledge. Thus do We reward the good(Al-Qasas:14),\nand what we've appointed of their care for him is apparent from God's saying\nabout this matter, and it is apparent from the meaning of their speech,\nso He said: (Pharaoh) said (unto Moses): Did we not rear thee among us\nas a child? And thou didst dwell many years of thy life among us(Al-Shu`ar\u00e2':18).\nYes, he did make live among them and took him a child for himself for he\ndid not have any child, and he was annoyed because Moses did not accept\nanyone to feed him until his mother came and feeded him, and the pharaoh\ndid not feel that she was his mother or one of his family, and when he\ndrank of her milk they all turned to be glad for this and gifted her with\nmany gifts, and so the pharaoh used to kill the children of Israel and\nMoses was living in his palace in luxury and he did not know that his end\nwould be by his hands.\nIt is mentioned that when Moses grew up and got the ability to distinguish\nbetween things while he was with the pharaoh, once he sneezed and said:\nthanks be to God (bless), and it was with the presence of the pharaoh,\nso he denied that from him and slapped him and said to him: what are you\nsaying? So when he did that Moses jumped over him and catched his beard\nand it was long, so he caught it and pulled it away, so then the pharaoh\ngot so angry and wanted to kill him, and then his wife \u00c2siyyah said:\nhe is only a kid that do not know what he is doing or saying, then the\npharaoh said to her: he knows and must be killed, she said then: test him\nand put for him some live coal and dates, so if he distinguished between\nthem then it is as you said and do whatever you like with him, so then\nthe pharaoh did as suggested and said to him: eat! Then he expanded his\nhand to the dates, but Gabriel then came down and directed his hand to\nthe live coal, so he took it and put it in his mouth and his tongue got\nburnt and he started to cry, so then \u00c2siyyah said to him: did not\nI tell you he does not understand a thing? Then the pharaoh forgave him\nThen Moses grew up as a man in the house of the pharaoh, and he was\nintellegent and strong with wisdom, goodly mannered, active and brave,\nhe was strange in his opinions, amazing in his ways, and awesome in dealing\nwith people, and Al-Tabari mentioned: when Moses grew up and been strong,\nhe kept the Egyptians away from the Israelites, and it is natural that\nthe Israelites considered him as a victory for them and one that can help\nthem in their living, but after all he did not forget that he was an Israelite\nand an intruder to the house of the pharaoh, and his identity might be\ndiscovered at any time, and as Al-Baydh\u00e2wi mentioned, he said that\nMoses stayed in the house of the pharaoh for thirty years, and then he\nescaped to Midian from the pharaoh. They say that one day Moses went out\nfrom the house of the pharaoh into the city while the people of the city\ndid not notice that, so then he found an Egyptian man holding a Hebrew\nman to make him work for him as a slave while the Hebrew man were denying\nthat, so then when the Hebrew man saw Moses he shouted for help so that\nMoses came with his wrath to the Egyptian man and poked him mightly which\ncaused him death and no one knew about it except of that Hebrew man that\nMoses saved, and Moses regretted and was so afraid of that and said to\nhimself: this is a deed of the devil for he is an enemy, and then he praised\nGod to forgive him and never make him an ally to the criminals, and this\ndeed was the first thing he would ever be afraid of.\nAl-Tabari mentioned a long story attributed to Ibn-`Abb\u00e2s about\nthe birth of Moses until he went out to Midian, and he mentioned: when\nEgyptians found the dead body of the man that Moses killed and they did\nnot know who killed him they said to the pharaoh: the Israelites killed\na man that belongs to the pharaoh so take revenge of them and do not allow\nthem to do so again, he said to them: bring me his killer and a witness\nfor it is not a right thing to judge without a clue, so then the Egyptians\nbegan to search for the killer even though in small number of suspects\nto give him to the pharaoh to take a revenge of him, and while they were\nwandering in the city to spy and investigate, Moses passed on and found\nthat Hebrew man that caused him to kill the Egyptian was fighting with\nanother Egyptian, and the Hebrew man shouted for help again against that\nEgyptian man which considered to be their shared enemy, so Moses said to\nhim: thou art indeed a mere hothead(Al-Qasas:18), and here he meant the\nHebrew man because he made embarrassment for Moses which became scared\nto be spied on because of that Hebrew man, and when Moses went to help\nthe Hebrew man and kill the Egyptian, the Egyptian said to him: O Moses!\nWouldst thou kill me as thou didst kill a person yesterday. Thou wouldst\nbe nothing but a tyrant in the land, thou wouldst not be of the reformers(Al-Qasas:19).","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: The B...","type":"page"}