Moses and Pharaoh

The story opens in fear. Pharaoh oppressed the Children of Israel and killed their newborn sons.

God inspired the mother of the baby Moses: nurse him, and if you fear for him, cast him into the river and do not grieve.

And the basket? It reached Pharaoh's own household, and Pharaoh's wife asked to keep him. Do not kill him, she said. He may be of use to us. His mother had sent his sister to follow him, and she watched from a distance, unnoticed. The baby refused every nurse, until his sister suggested one: his own mother. So he was returned to her, and he grew up in Pharaoh's palace.

God returned the baby Moses to his mother through his enemy's own house.

The boy raised in Pharaoh's palace became a young man. One day he came upon a fight between an Israelite and an Egyptian. Moses intervened and struck the Egyptian, and the man died.

Moses turned to God immediately: "My Lord, I have wronged myself, so forgive me." He was forgiven.

Then came a warning: the chiefs were plotting to kill him. So he fled to Madyan. At the well there, two women were holding their flock back, apart from the crowd. Their father was an old man, they said. Moses watered the flock for them, then went to the shade and prayed. He was in need, he said, of whatever good God might send him. He married one of them, and worked for her father for years.

Even Moses, a prophet, had a past he repented of.

After his years in Madyan, Moses was travelling back with his family. On the side of the mountain he saw a fire. He went to it, hoping for news or a burning brand.

There he was called: "Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals; you are in the sacred valley."

Then a question. What was that in his right hand? His staff, he said. He leaned on it, and beat down leaves with it for his sheep. Throw it down, he was told.

He was given signs: a staff that became a serpent, and a hand that came out shining white. Then he was told to go to Pharaoh. He asked for one thing: his brother Aaron (Harun) to help him, because Aaron spoke more fluently.

Sent to Pharaoh, Moses asked for his brother's help, and was given it.

So the two brothers, Moses and Aaron, came to Pharaoh. They had been told to speak to him gently, so that he might remember or fear. They asked him to free the Children of Israel. Pharaoh mocked them, and summoned his best magicians.

The magicians threw their ropes and staffs, and these seemed to writhe. Moses felt fear inside himself. Do not be afraid, he was told. Then Moses threw his staff, and it swallowed what they had made.

Here is the twist. Pharaoh's own magicians fell down in prostration and declared belief. Pharaoh threatened to cut off their hands and feet. They replied that he could only decide this worldly life.

Pharaoh's magicians knew a trick when they saw one, and knew this was not.

Moses leads the Israelites out by night. Pharaoh's army pursues them, all the way to the sea.

Picture it: the sea in front, an army behind. His people cry that they will be overtaken. Moses answers: "No! My Lord is with me; He will guide me." He strikes the sea with his staff, and it parts.

The Israelites cross. Pharaoh and his army follow, and are drowned. The Qur'an says that as he drowned, Pharaoh declared belief, too late, and that his body would be preserved as a sign.

Moses said "My Lord is with me" with Pharaoh's army in sight.

The sea was behind them. Was that the end of the story? Not in the Qur'an. It returns again and again to what came after: the Israelites' complaints in the desert, the tablets given to Moses on the mountain, and the golden calf made in his absence. The calf is made from their jewellery, and it makes a lowing sound. Moses comes back, throws down the tablets and seizes his brother by the head. Son of my mother, Aaron says, the people overpowered me.

Moses's anger, his prayers for his people and his patience run through it all.

Muslims see in Moses a model for the Prophet ﷺ, who also led a people from persecution to freedom and faced the trials of building a community.

For Moses and the Israelites, freedom was the beginning of the test, not the end.