Surah Al Qasas Part 1 | "Throw Your Baby In The Sea"

Surah Al-Qasas Part 1 | "Throw Your Baby In The Sea"

I want you to imagine a mother in Gaza. She's standing there with a lifeless baby in her hands — a baby who has died under the rubble, a baby who has no electricity, no water, no food. I want you to imagine this mother, what's going through her mind at this moment in time. And I want you to see what does Allah talk about when he refers to the mother of Musa.

"And We wanted to favor those who were oppressed in the land, and make them leaders, and make them inheritors. And to establish them in the land, and to show Pharaoh and Haman and their soldiers from them what they used to fear."

"And We revealed to the mother of Moses: Nurse him, and 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 make him of the messengers."

"And the family of Pharaoh picked him up so that he would become to them an enemy and a cause of grief. Indeed, Pharaoh and Haman and their soldiers were wrongdoers."

"And the wife of Pharaoh said: A comfort of the eye for me and for you. Do not kill him; perhaps he may benefit us, or we may adopt him as a son. And they did not perceive."

"And the heart of the mother of Moses became empty. She was about to disclose it had We not bound her heart so that she would be of the believers."

"And she said to his sister: Follow him. So she watched him from a distance while they did not perceive. And We had forbidden for him wet-nurses before, so she said: Shall I direct you to a household who will take care of him for you, and they will be sincerely devoted to him?"

"So We restored him to his mother, that she might be comforted and not grieve, and that she might know that the promise of Allah is true. But most of them do not know."

Assalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

The Most Frequently Repeating Story in the Quran

The story of Moses and Pharaoh is the most frequently repeating story in the Quran. And it is the most frequently repeating story in history. Because it keeps happening. The same story repeats itself again and again.

Allah begins this surah by saying: طسم — Taa, Seen, Meem. Three letters of the Arabic alphabet, which ultimately we don't know. There are various interpretations of what Allah is saying. But it is a challenge ultimately to the Arabs — these are the letters that you have, so bring me something like it.

"We recite to you the news of Moses and Pharaoh with truth — for people who believe."

Because it is only the believers who will really take lessons from this story.

The Portrait of Pharaoh: Understanding the Tyrant

Allah begins by describing the Pharaoh of Egypt. Not describing Moses, not describing the Israelites, but describing Pharaoh himself. Because the tyrant is the centerpiece of the story. Everything revolves around the zalim — the person who wants to create oppression on the earth. And when you understand this character, you will understand all oppressors on this earth. Because they all fit the Pharaoh template.

The first thing Allah says is that Pharaoh wanted a high place on earth. He wanted prestige. He wanted status. He was greedy for attention. He was a narcissist. He wanted people's faces to turn towards him, to submit to him. He wanted a high place in the land.

The significance of this statement? This is the motive of Pharaoh, his intention. Ultimately, this is what he wants. He is not interested in the killing. He is not interested in the oppression, the murder, or the money. What he really wants — what he worships — is himself. He thinks he is the greatest thing Allah created. And that arrogance, that pride, that inflated sense of self is at the center of every tyrant and every oppressor. They think too much of themselves. They want the highest place for themselves. Everybody is small, insignificant, nothing compared to them.

If you have this inside you — and we all have a little bit of this — it will cause you to take advantage of others in order to establish yourself, to cement your prestige, your status, your place. You will take advantage of others. So with Pharaoh, it all starts with the heart.

This is why the Prophet ﷺ informed us that the heart is like the king of the body. If the heart is sound, everything else becomes sound. And if the heart is corrupt, everything else becomes corrupt. At the center of every tyrant and every ruthless killer is a sick heart. It's that simple.

Divide and Conquer: Pharaoh's Strategy

Now we've talked about Pharaoh's disease — he's sick. What did Pharaoh do? How did he construct, how did he create this society where he could willingly kill whoever he wants and do whatever he wants?

"He divided its people into factions, oppressing a group of them, slaughtering their sons and keeping their females alive. Indeed, he was of the corruptors."

جَعَلَ أَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا — He made the people of Egypt into groups. يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَائِفَةً مِّنْهُمْ — He makes some of those groups weaker than others. He gives them less rights. They can't sit on the same chairs, they can't eat the same food, they can't access the same rights.

What's this called in English? When you have a group of people but you give some of them different rights than others — you weaken some of them, you oppress some of them, you don't give them the same land or the homes, or sit on the same chairs or tables as others. Apartheid.

Apartheid is a word in English. And this word has been used to describe many societies in history. You have apartheid South Africa. If you wanted to go to a restaurant, you'd see a sign: Whites Only. Black people were not allowed to enter this restaurant. You'd go to sit on a bus — only white people are allowed to sit down. And you have the famous Rosa Parks incident. One African-American woman goes and she sits down. "What's this? You can't sit down on the bus, it's a whites-only bus." She says, "I'm sitting down, do what you want. Burn the bus down if you want, I'm sitting down. I have an equal right to sit down as you."

When a society is created in this way — the group who are given less rights, who are oppressed, who are treated like less than human — they become treated like slaves. They are never able to progress because of that. Even 150 years later, apartheid is removed, but people's brains still have a little bit of apartheid left inside them. That separation. That "you guys are less, you guys are not human, less than human." These were the words used recently to describe the Palestinian people — that they are animals.

So the dangerous thing about apartheid is that once it's there in society, it takes root in people's minds.

يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَائِفَةً مِّنْهُمْ — When you have that imbalanced society, you can do what you want. يُذَبِّحُ أَبْنَاءَهُمْ — You can kill their children. وَيَسْتَحْيِي نِسَاءَهُمْ — Pharaoh humiliates and oppresses the women. إِنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ — He was somebody who wanted to corrupt Egypt. Why? The more corrupt Egypt is, the more divided its people are, the longer he can stay in power. The ultimate goal: I have to be the boss. I am the king. I am the one. Everybody turns towards me.

There is a famous British strategy: if I want to keep myself in power for long, I should divide and conquer. شِيَعًا — groups. Make them groups. Pit them against each other. Fund one group against the other. Let them fight each other. إِنَّهُ كَانَ مِنَ الْمُفْسِدِينَ — Very smart tactics to stay long in power. As you can see, these tricks are old. But they repeat. History repeats itself.

Allah's Plan for the Oppressed

Then Allah says something profound:

Allah says: We wanted to favor the people who were made weak — Banu Israel. وَنَجْعَلَهُمْ أَئِمَّةً — We want them to be leaders. وَنَجْعَلَهُمُ الْوَارِثِينَ — We want them to inherit the kingdom. وَنُمَكِّنَ لَهُمْ فِي الْأَرْضِ — We want to establish them in the land.

Hold on a second. Allah is describing a group of people who are slaves, who are oppressed, who can't eat in the same restaurants, who can't access the same rights. And Allah is saying: through their weakness, We want them to become kings. We want them to become strong. We want them to inherit Egypt.

For you and me, it doesn't make sense. But this is the cycle. Allah makes them weak to later make them strong. I want them to become strong, but first they have to go through this darkness. First they have to go through this burning period. Because when you put something inside burning fire, it comes out pure. I want to purify them first. I don't want to give them power straight away. I want them to first become pure, then they will deserve the power. And I will give them the power. But they have to wait their turn.

We will eventually establish them on the land. We will show Pharaoh and his side man Haman and their soldiers — We will show them what they should be scared of. But at this moment in time, Banu Israel, this enslaved class of people, they can't see this vision. They don't know this is what Allah wants from them. All they see every day is day-to-day suffering. But they have to trust the process. At the end of the furnace is the pure diamond.

The Mother of Musa: A Promise in the Darkness

Then Allah turns the story to the mother of Musa.

I want you to imagine a mother in Gaza. She's standing there with a lifeless baby in her hands. A baby who has died under the rubble. A baby who has no electricity, no water, no food. I want you to imagine this mother — what's going through her mind at this moment in time. And I want you to see what does Allah talk about when he refers to the mother of Musa.

Allah revealed — inspired — the mother of Musa to feed Musa. When the guards came to her house to take him and he was crying, she was told: feed him quickly, he goes silent. If you get scared, throw him in the Nile. Usually you'd say to someone: look, if you get scared for your child, cover them up. Allah is saying the opposite: work against your instincts. Your motherly instinct is to cover this baby in a jacket. Allah is saying do the opposite. You're scared for your child — throw him in the river.

Then Allah says: But don't be scared, don't be sad. Imagine — what a task. Throw your baby in the river but don't be scared. Why? This is the promise of Allah: We will bring him back to you. We will make him a messenger.

Allah makes a promise to the mother in Gaza as well. This child who lays lifeless in your hands — you will meet him in paradise. You will drink from rivers of honey. You will drink from rivers of milk. Fruits will be at your beck and call. Don't worry, don't be sad. You will reunite very soon. We will bring him back to you, don't worry.

But what's the problem? When Allah talks about the mother of Musa, Allah says she was going to hand him over to the guards. She was going to give up. Because the heart of a mother is weak — even the mother of Musa. It's soft, it melts when she hears the cry of a baby.

But — We strengthened her heart. We strengthened her Iman.

When Allah describes the heart of this woman, He says: her heart felt empty. That's what it feels like when your child is about to die, when your child is about to be taken, seized by the guards, pummeled into the ground, with bricks and mortar falling on this child. You feel terrified, you feel empty, you feel anxious.

But the mother of Musa — her heart is strengthened by Allah. The promise of Allah is true. Allah says: We tied her heart tight. So she trusted Allah. That rope that extends from the heart to the sky — trust the One who is alive and never dies. And praise Him with your tongue.

This is the story of that mother who struggled. She was going to give up. Every mother right now facing that oppression — and every person — has a weak moment where they are about to give up. But Allah is telling them: no, stay firm. Trust the process. This is a cycle. You will come out on top, but you have to wait. You have to suffer. This is your time to suffer. People have to die. This is the process. Trust Me, you will reunite with your child. Trust the promise of Allah.

The Wife of Firaun: A Beautiful Subtlety

There is one beautiful subtlety in this surah. Allah talks about another woman in this process — the wife of Firaun. The wife of Firaun sees this baby floating in the river. She says: this can be the coolness of our eyes, therapy for us. Don't kill him, Firaun. Maybe he will benefit us, or we can take him as a son.

This line — this line is repeated in the Quran elsewhere. Where? Surah Yusuf. Why is the same sentence in Surah Yusuf and in the story of Musa? Because it's the same story. But there is actually a contrast as well.

How are Musa and Yusuf related? They are both messengers? No — they are blood related. They are family. Who is Yusuf? The son of Yaqub. What about Musa? Musa is one of Yusuf's great-grandsons. From the same line.

Where is Musa right now? In Egypt. Banu Israel weren't in Egypt before. Where were they before? In the holy land. How did they come to Egypt? Who brought Banu Israel to Egypt? Yusuf. Yusuf did hijrah — he migrated from Palestine to Egypt. He is the one who brought them there in the first place. Centuries later, they are there, but they are enslaved. Musa is the great-great-great-great-grandson of Yusuf.

Allah draws parallels between them. Where does Yusuf end up at the end of his story? In the palace. Musa is a baby thrown in the river — where does he end up? In the palace. Musa has to take Banu Israel out of Egypt. Yusuf brings them into Egypt. Yusuf is an individual story, but Musa is a story of a nation.

There is a woman in the palace who looks after Musa. And there is a woman in the palace who looks after Yusuf. Both Musa and Yusuf are tested in the palace. In the story of Musa and the story of Yusuf, Allah is telling us already: history repeats itself. It's the same cycle. You go through the well, then the prison, but eventually you end up in the palace. But the palace is a test. Don't think it's the end of the road — there will be a test there as well.

The Promise Fulfilled: Returned to His Mother

Allah says at the end of this passage: eventually, Musa was returned to his mother. As a baby, she was brought into the palace to nurse him because he wouldn't accept anybody's milk. And so through this way, We returned him to his mother — so her eyes would find coolness and she would not feel sadness.

And this is the most important point:

"And for her to know for certain that Allah's promise is always true — but most of them do not know."

You have to trust the promise of Allah. Most people don't trust the promise of Allah. They get stuck in the moment. They don't see the vision. They don't see the cycle. They don't see it's a repetition of past events. They get stuck in the moment and they lose hope in Allah. They give the baby to the guards. They completely throw everything away — because they forgot this point.

Allah's Secret Plan: وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ

One last thing about this passage. There's one sentence Allah keeps repeating again and again. It's come twice just in this first page and it's going to repeat throughout the story: وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ — they do not realize it.

But Allah is doing things for them. When you're stuck in the cycle of oppression, in apartheid, in killing, in destruction — when you're stuck in that cycle of the process — you don't realize Allah is secretly planning for you. Allah is secretly planning to save, planning for the victory. Allah has His plan. But you don't realize it.

Did Yusuf know when he was in the well that the caravan passing by would take him to a palace? He never knew. Did Musa — this baby — know as he floats in the river that he's going to land in the lap of the Pharaoh of Egypt and become the prince of Egypt? He never knew.

We don't know what Allah plans for us. But Allah is Al-Latif. He turns our calamities into gifts. Secretly, suddenly, Allah has His ways. You don't hear the whispers of the ants. You don't hear the flutters of the birds. But they are all the soldiers of Allah — moving, plotting, planning, executing. Angels descending, making things happen. You don't realize all this is happening around you. This is all the plan of Allah.

But we have to trust the process. We have to know the promise of Allah is true.

Wassalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.