{"collection":"Islam","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/pro/mos08.htm","path":"isl/pro/mos08.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/isl/pro/mos08.htm","text":"Moses Entering Egypt After Sending Him With His Brother\nAaron\nThey mention that after Moses had spoke with God in the holy valley and\nafter His commandment in His saying: Go thou unto Pharaoh! Lo! he hath\ntransgressed (the bounds)(TaHa:24), he went along with his family and his\ncattles to Egypt and he got into it at night time and had a residence in\nthe house of his mother and brother and the rest of his family, and seems\nthat his father was dead at that time, and we've mentioned before that\nhis brother Aaron went to him for reception on the bank of the Nile by\nan inspiration from God to Aaron, and then he took residence in the house\nof his family and he had the great happiness for meeting them after such\na long period of time, especially towards his purified mother, and he told\nthem about his matter and whatever he faced of troubles until he reached\nMidian and about his residence with Jethro and so on, and he told his brother\nAaron that he is his partner in the message and he is a prophet and appointed\nto tell the message and take on its adversities and take the leadership\nby a commandment of God, so Aaron had nothing but to accept it and obey\nGod's commandment, then they went to tell the message and go to the pharaoh,\nand they had nothing in their thoughts but to do what God commanded with.\nIt is said that they got into the court of the pharaoh just by requesting\nthat. In a speech attributed to Al-S\u00e2diq (PUH) that he said: when\nGod sent Moses as a prophet to the pharaoh, he came to his door and asked\nto meet him but he did not give a permission, so he (Moses) stroke the\ndoor with his stick and all open doors were closed and then he got into\nthe court of the pharaoh and told him that he is a prophet from God and\nasked him to send with him the Israelites, so then the pharaoh said to\nhim: Did we not rear thee among us as a child? And thou didst dwell many\nyears of thy life among us, And thou didst that thy deed which thou didst,\nand thou wast one of the ingrates(Al-Shu`ar\u00e2':18-19), meaning that\nyou killed a man from us so you were ingrateful to my care for you, and\nthen Moses said: Even though I show thee something plain?(Al-Shu`ar\u00e2':30),\nthen the pharaoh said: Produce it then, if thou art of the truthful!(Al-Shu`ar\u00e2':31),\nThen he flung down his staff and it became a serpent manifest(Al-Shu`ar\u00e2':32),\nand so then everyone escaped and fled away and terror got into the pharaoh\nand he could not hold hisself and then said: O Moses, by God I ask you\nto keep it away from me, and so he did, and then he got his hands out and\nit was so white, and it is said that when Moses took his stick away from\nthe pharaoh, he was about to believe in Moses but Haman said to him: you\nwere a god and worshipped and now you are a servant for a servant, stop\nhim and do not allow him to do his deeds, so then the tyrants of the pharaoh's\nfollowers said: he is only a magician with a great knowledge and want to\nbanish you away from your lands so what are you going to do? They said\nthen: Put him off (a while) - him and his brother - and send into the cities\nsummoners, To bring each knowing wizard unto thee(Al-A`r\u00e2f:111-112).\nThey said that the pharaoh and Haman were the best wizards, and they\nconquered people by the magic, and the pharaoh claimed hisself as a god\nby magic, and as for Haman he was a slave for the pharaoh, as it is mentioned\nin Safeenat Al-Bih\u00e2r for Al-Muhaddi\u00fe Al-Qummi, but because\nof his loyality to the pharaoh and because he did not believe in a thing\nexcept in life and to make people as slaves, he was then transformed from\nbeing just an advisor to someone that shares everything in his matters,\nand what we understand about this man, Haman, that he was an intelligent\nman and a devil by himself and also a hypocrite and has no religion and\ndoes not worship anything, and when the pharaoh was about to believe in\nMoses, Haman started to keep him away from this, thus the pharaoh was closer\nto the faith rather than Haman was and for this when he was about to sink\nhe said: I believed in what the Israelites believed in, but that was of\nno benefit to him, so Haman is the one that used to manage the matters\nof the pharaoh, and he built for him the tower when he (the pharaoh) ordered\nhim to do so: and set up for me a lofty tower in order that I may survey\nthe god of Moses(Al-Qasas:38), and they say that when Moses told the pharaoh\nwhat he was sent for and to send with him the Israelites, he (the pharaoh)\nmade this as a favour for him to the Israelites and Moses, and the speech\nof Moses to the pharaoh was a speech of passion and easiness with patience\napplying God's commandment to him and his brother in God's saying: And\nspeak unto him a gentle word, that peradventure he may heed or fear(TaHa:44),\nand also God said in the chapter of Al-A`r\u00e2f: Moses said: O Pharaoh!\nLo! I am a messenger from the Lord of the Worlds, Approved upon condition\nthat I speak concerning Allah nothing but the truth. I come unto you (lords\nof Egypt) with a clear proof from your Lord. So let the Children of Israel\ngo with me(Al-A`r\u00e2f:104-105), and in the chapter of Al-Shu`ar\u00e2'\nthe same meaning is mentioned.\nSome people claimed that such speech is in fact as to mock at the pharaoh\nby Moses as for Moses he was powerful by God and by whatever God gave him\nof miracles, and his power is not humiliated by the claims of the pharaoh\nor his numerous solders or even his luxurious marches, but this is just\nan imagination of the one claimed such thing, and it is a gentle word for\nthe benefit of the others and it is for what God wanted in God's saying:\nAnd speak unto him a gentle word, that peradventure he may heed or fear(TaHa:44),\nand this commandment to make his heart incline toward releasing the Israelites,\nbecause he had enslaved them and treated them worse than anyone else, thus\nas if Moses was sent for them only and to release them and stop humiliating\nthem and let them work with the religion of their fathers Abraham and Ishmael\nand Isaac and Jacob (PUT), as it is understood from the results of their\nstory after passing through the sea and the death of the pharaoh at the\nend.\nIt is said that the pharaoh was a cow-worshipper and he ordered the\npeople to worship it and the narrator of such tidings takes the clue from\nthe deed of As-Samiri (The Samarian) who made the calf for the Israelites\nfor they were used to it, thus it is said that for the hardness and harshness\nof the pharaoh and his tyranny, he is not faced with mocking as some said,\nbut he was faced with the gentle words for God's saying: And speak unto\nhim a gentle word, that peradventure he may heed or fear(TaHa:44), or else\nhe might be faced with destruction.\nThen the pharaoh, after the message of Moses and the seducation of\nHaman, started to gather the wizards to stand against Moses, and gathered\nthem from all the cities and they were one thousand wizards, and he chose\nthe best eighty of them and they said to the pharaoh: you knew that no\none is more skillful than us in magic, so if we defeated Moses what is\nour reward? He said to them: you will share the kingdom with me, they then\nsaid to him: and if Moses defeated us and broke our magic then we would\nknow that what he showed was not magic but it is a miracle from God to\nprove his claims and so we must believe in him. Then said the pharaoh:\nif Moses defeated you, I shall believe in him as well.\nAs attrbiuted to Ibn-`Abb\u00e2s he said: when the pharaoh said the\npower of God in the stick and the hand (of Moses) he said: we will not\ndefeat Moses unless by facing him with someone like him, so he took some\nchildren from the Israelites and sent them to a village called Al-`Arm\u00e2'\nwhere magic is taught for children and they learned lot of magic and the\npharaoh had an appointed with Moses in a certain day, and he called the\nwizards so they came with their teachers, and then the pharaoh said to\nthem: how did you do? They said: we taught them magic that no one on earth\ncould bear unless if it was a commandment from heaven then they cannot\nbear it, so then the pharaoh gathered all the wizards and they were seventy\ntwo men, and Ka`b Al-Ahb\u00e2r said they were twelve thousand, and some\nsaid they were around thirty thousand, and `Ikrimah said seventy thousand,\nand some said eighty thousand and he (the pharaoh) chose seventy thousand\nof them and then from those seventy thousand he picked seven hundred, and\nthey say that chiefs of the wizards were brothers from the town of Al-Sofr\n(and it is an area at the far end of Egypt and only God knows) and when\nthe messanger of the pharaoh came they said to their father: the king called\nfor us because two men arrived in his court without men or weapons but\nhave the power and the king is annoyed because of them, and they had a\nstick that when thrown nothing would stand in its face and swallows the\niron and the woods and the stones, so their father answered: look to them\nwhen they sleep, and if you can, steal it from them, because the magic\nof a wizard would not work while he's sleeping, and if you could not do\nit while they are sleeping then this is something of God's commandment\nand you have no power for this nor anyone else would, and so they did and\ntried to steal it while they were sleeping but when it felt them, it chased\nthem and they fled away scared, and they had an appointment with him at\nthe day of the feast [Arabic: day of the feast = Yawm Al-Zeenah] and it\nwas a day for the market for them (the Egyptians).\nIt is mentioned from Ibn-`Abb\u00e2s that it was at the day of `\u00c2shur\u00e2'\n[the tenth day of Muharram, the first month in lunar calendar, and the\nsame day for the massacre of the grandson of the prophet, Al-Husain], and\nit was on Saturday and also it was at the day of Nayruz [Nayruz: ancient\npersian festival announcing the beginning of spring, Iranian people still\ncelebrate it every year], and so all the people from all around the world\ngathered together and it was in Alexandria, so when everyone gathered together,\nMoses came to them while he was standing with the help of his stick and\nAaron with him, so Moses then said to the wizards: Woe unto you! Invent\nnot a lie against Allah, lest He extirpate you by some punishment. He who\nlieth faileth miserably(TaHa:61), so each one of them said to the other:\nthis is not a saying of a wizard, then they said to him: we shall show\nyou today a magic that you never saw before, and they brought the sticks\nand ropes carried by sixty camels. Then Moses said to them: Throw what\nye are going to throw! So they did and threw their sticks and ropes and\nit went like if they were snakes and like mountains that filled the valley\nriding each other, so he (Moses) got scared in himself, [a line comes here\nI could not understand!], then God inspired to him: Fear not! Lo! thou\nart the higher, Throw that which is in thy right hand! It will eat up that\nwhich they have made. Lo! that which they have made is but a wizard's artifice,\nand a wizard shall not be successful to whatever point (of skill) he may\nattain(TaHa:68-69), so he threw his stick and turned to be a large black\nserpent with four short but thick legs and had a tail that it used to stand\nupon and could reach higher than the city walls with its head, and anything\nit would strike with its tail would be broken, and its legs could break\nthe rocks and fill the walls of the houses with fire and his nose smoked\npoisons, so then it viewed what the wizards did throw and it were like\nsnakes in the eyes of the pharaoh and the others, so it swallowed them\none by one and nothing left in the valley, so the people got defeated and\nfell upon each other so that twenty five thousand persons died that day\nbecause of that and the pharaoh got defeated with fear..etc - and it is\na long tale - until the narrator said: when the wizards saw what happened\nthey said: if it was magic it would not be hid from us, and if it was magic\nthen where are our sticks and ropes? Then they fell prostrating and said:\nWe believe in the Lord of the Worlds, The Lord of Moses and Aaron(Al-A`r\u00e2f:121-122),\nand there were four elders among them: Sabur, `\u00c2rur, Hat-hat, Masf\u00e2,\nso when the wizards believed (in Moses) the pharaoh said with stubborness:\nYe put your faith in him before I give you leave. Lo! he doubtless is your\nchief who taught you magic! But verily ye shall come to know. Verily I\nwill cut off your hands and your feet alternately, and verily I will crucify\nyou every one(Al-Shu`ar\u00e2':49), then they said: We choose thee not\nabove the clear proofs that have come unto us, and above Him Who created\nus. So decree what thou wilt decree. Thou wilt end for us only this life\nof the world(TaHa:72), so he cut off their hands and legs and crucified\nthem and he was the first to do that, so they were disbelievers in the\nmorning and faithful martyrs in the evening, and the pharaoh was defeated\nand denied but to remain being stubborn, so Moses got back and the stick\nfollowing him protecting him like an honest dog would do to his master\nand the people were looking at it until Moses went into the camp of the\nIsraelites and he took its head and it got back again to a stick.\nThey say that the meeting of the wizards with Moses and his brother\nat that appointed day and it was a day of festival for them, so when it\nwas midday all people gathered, and the pharaoh had that day a dome that\nwas seventy cubits in height and it was covered with steel and when the\nsun rays strike it no one would be able to look at it because of the glancing,\nand when they faced each other, the wizards said to the pharaoh: we see\na man that looks into heaven and our magic did not reach the heaven, then\nthey said to Moses: O Moses! Either throw (first) or let us be the first\nthrowers? So Moses said to them: Throw what ye are going to throw! Then\nthey threw down their cords and their staves and said: By Pharaoh's might,\nlo! we verily are the winners. Then they (cords and staves) started to\nshake and ride on each other so everyone that might looked at them would\nthink that they are indeed snakes and all people got scared, and Moses\nkept his fear inside himself and then he was called: Fear not! Lo! thou\nart the higher. Throw that which is in thy right hand! It will eat up that\nwhich they have made. Lo! that which they have made is but a wizard's artifice,\nand a wizard shall not be successful to whatever point (of skill) he may\nattain, so Moses then threw his staff and it melted like lead on the floor\nthen its head appeared and opened its mouth and put its upper jaw on the\ndome of the pharaoh and then went around like a millstone and ate the cords\nand staves of the wizards as if they were nothing, and people got horrified\nbecause of this and could not hold themselves and started to run and squashed\neach other so that ten thousand men and women and children were killed\nbecause of this, then it went around the dome of the pharaoh and he (the\npharaoh) got frustrated and also Haman and so scared so that polluted their\nclothes and their head went white, while Moses went with the people running\nso then God called him saying: Grasp it and fear not. We shall return it\nto its former state, so then Moses went back and covered his hand with\nhis clothes and put his hand into its mouth and it turned back into a staff\nas it was, so then the wizards fell prostrating and said: We believe in\nthe Lord of Aaron and Moses, but the pharaoh got angry for what they did\nand said to them: Ye put your faith in him before I give you leave. Lo!\nhe doubtless is your chief who taught you magic! But verily ye shall come\nto know. Verily I will cut off your hands and your feet alternately, and\nverily I will crucify you every one, and they said to him: Lo! we ardently\nhope that our Lord will forgive us our sins because we are the first of\nthe believers..etc, and we've mentioned the story before but it is here\nagain for some variations in narrations, but the truth in all variations\nis one as it is obvious.","title":"The Prophets, Their Lives and Their Stories: Moses: Moses...","type":"page"}