Taha 20:37–61

The original inhabitants of Egypt were the Copts (Qibti) whose political and religious representative was Pharaoh. The other community there was that of the the Children of Israel (Israelites) who had migrated and settled there during the period of Joseph (Yusuf). At the time of Moses’ birth, Pharaoh, intending the complete extermination of the Israelite race, had given orders for all male children born in Israelite homes to be killed. Moses’s mother, inspired by God, placed her baby in a basket and set it adrift on the waters of the river Nile, in order to save him from being killed. The basket floated down the river and reached a spot near the royal palace where Pharaoh and his wife saw him. Moved by pity for the small child, they took him and kept him in the palace. Thereafter, at the suggestion of Moses’s sister, his mother was appointed to breast-feed him. It was a miracle of God that Moses was brought up and educated by that very Pharaoh who would have had him killed, had he known his identity, and who was later to become his greatest enemy. When Moses grew up, he intervened in a quarrel between an Egyptian and an Israelite. When he took the Egyptian to task, the latter died quite unexpectedly. Then, orders were issued by the government for Moses to be arrested. But, Moses secretly left Egypt and reached Midian. There in the desert, he had many new experiences. After the Egyptian’s being killed, Moses prayed with great fervour to Almighty God, as a result of which He led Moses to understand that this incident could afford him valuable lessons.

When, after a series of testing experiences, Moses reached the final stage of maturity, God assigned to him prophethood, so that he might communicate the divine message to man. Moses was given two pieces of advice—that he should never be remiss in the remembrance of God and that he should never be coercive in the performance of the mission of communicating the message of God to man. Remembrance of God means belief in God being so all-pervasive that the thought of God comes to mind, time and time again. Every observation a man makes and every incident in his life should, coupled with his God-consciousness, be the cause of awakening for him. While ordinary people live on material food, the preacher of Truth lives on the remembrance of God. Remembrance of God is an asset to the faithful (mu’min) and to the missionary alike. The second essential element is the adoption of a lenient approach in the communication of divine message to man. The very fact that Moses was so instructed when he had to approach such an arrogant person as Pharaoh shows that a tactful and considerate attitude in mission work is an absolute requirement in all cases. Even arrogance or harsh behaviour on the part of those who are the addressees, does not give the missionary any right to deviate from being kind and understanding in his approach.

Pharaoh was an extremely haughty and arrogant person. Having acquired power, he had started considering himself to be a god. So Moses feared that when the message of the real God was presented to him, he would flare up in anger. But God’s messengers are under His protection. So Moses was commanded to proceed and to be rest assured that Pharaoh, despite his great might and power, would not be able to do him any harm. The Israelites were monotheists like the Muslims. But, being in the midst of the polytheistic community of Egypt, they were badly affected by its polytheistic culture. Moreover, the rulers had subjected them to such privation and hard labour as to render them incapable of thinking about such higher realities as the oneness of God and the life hereafter. Therefore, Moses was instructed to remove the Israelites from this sphere and settle them elsewhere, so that they could be brought up and educated far away from this vitiating atmosphere of polytheism and ignorance.

Pharaoh’s question, ‘Who is your Lord?’ did not mean that he was not aware of any god besides himself, or that he quite finally denied the existence of a superior god. All it showed, in fact, was contempt for Moses’ utterance, rather than being a straight denial. In Egypt, Joseph had preached the oneness of God. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of Israelites were still living there and they professed faith in the one God. In this way, belief in one superior God existed in Egypt, but the power, pomp and glory were Pharaoh’s. According to the belief of the Egyptians, Pharaoh was the worldly manifestation of their greatest god, the sun. He was Egypt’s god-king and idols and statues of him had become objects of worship throughout Egypt. Moses, in stark contrast to this, belonged to the Israelite community—a community held in low esteem because of its slave-labour status. Against this background, his faith could have no public significance in Egypt. In this world there are innumerable things, each one of which has its peculiar structure and its own method of working. Everything functions according to immutable laws. Even an arrogant king like Pharaoh was not exempt from this system—which clearly proves the existence of a Superior Creator. When Moses made this statement, Pharaoh felt that he had no direct reply to it; so he gave the matter a new turn. Finding himself weak in the field of reasoning and arguments, he wanted to incite prejudicial feelings and thus maintain his own superiority among his people. Therefore, he asked Moses—if whatever he said was true—what had happened to the great ones of the past, who, according to Moses, had died while in a misguided condition. Moses did not answer this question directly. Instead he said, ‘You had better leave this matter to God and think about yourself.’

The creation of the earth, the institution of the system of rainfall, the growth of plants and greenery and other natural phenomena that have made the present world habitable for living things, are astonishingly great and wonderful manifestations. They are ‘signs’ which prove that the Creator and Lord of this world can be none other than Almighty God. In order to bring into existence such a world as the present one, extraordinary power is required, which is available neither to any ‘Sun’ nor to any ‘King’. This being so, there is no alternative but to admit that the One who has created our world and the One who controls it is a Superior Being, namely God. This proves, moreover, that this world has not been created in vain; ours is not a world which has come into existence without purpose and which is likely to end in the same way. A meaningful world implies a meaningful end. Keen observation of this world provides proof of the oneness of God and also of the life hereafter.

Moses continued to preach to Pharaoh over a long period of time, using rational arguments and also showing him miracles of a physical nature. But Pharaoh did not believe in Moses. In reality, admitting the truth of Moses’s preaching would have amounted to a negation of himself—something which his proud and egoistic mentality would never permit. Pharaoh tried to nullify Moses’s rational arguments by means of irrelevant pleas. On the subject of his miracles, Pharaoh alleged that they were simply magic, i.e., something which had no relevance to God, and insisted that anybody could acquire the necessary expertise to perform such feats. In order to keep up his boastful assertions, he said that he, through his magicians, could perform the same feats or miracles as Moses had demonstrated. After some discussion, it was finally decided that, at the forthcoming national fair, magicians of the country should gather, and there should be a competition between them and Moses before all the people.

Pharaoh sent his messengers throughout the country with an invitation to all the expert magicians. When they had gathered at the fair grounds, before the start of the contest, Moses made a speech. This speech was nothing new to the people; it was in the nature of a reminder. The magicians and other people were already aware of what Moses’ message was going to be. They knew that Moses upheld the unity of God as opposed to the belief in a multiplicity of gods, or in the existence of partners to God. Against this background, Moses took this last opportunity to give the final admonition. He impressed upon Pharaoh and the magicians how vital it was not to treat this as mere conjuring. He said that it was an extremely serious matter to treat any sign from God as if it were magic and then to try to surpass it by human sleight of hand. This amounted to an attempt to counter actual reality by means of an absolutely unreal thing; this would certainly result in destruction. He clarified that while they were apparently bent on proving him false, what they were doing in reality, was trying to prove the falsity of God Himself. Those who give free rein to this type of arrogance can never succeed in the world of God.