In the name of God, the Merciful, the Beneficent
Said He: “You are granted all that you have asked for, Moses. And indeed We bestowed Our favor upon you in time gone by, when We inspired your mother, saying: ‘Place (your child) in a chest and throw it into the river. The river will cast him ashore, and one who is an enemy to Me and an enemy to him will pick him up’.”
“I lavished My love on you, so that you may be reared under My watchful eye. Then your sister went forth and said (to Pharaoh’s people): ‘Shall I direct you to one who might take care of him?’ Thus did We restore you to your mother, so that her mind might be set at ease and that she might not grieve. (Ta Ha: 20: 36-40)
Commentary By Sayyid Qutb
Over the last two or three weeks we discussed the address that Moses received from on high, how his mission was outlined and his prayer to God for support. We mentioned that he was charged with confronting Pharaoh, the hardest tyrant of his time who claimed to be a deity, with the faith based on God’s oneness and to call on him to submit himself to God Almighty. We also discussed last week what Moses prayed for so that he might have the necessary support to fulfill his mission. He appealed to God to strengthen him and facilitate his task, to give him support in the shape of his brother Aaron. That would enable them to glorify Him all the more and remember Him all the time.
God responded by saying that all his requests have been granted. This was an act of grace by the One who is most gracious. But with this he is given a reminder of God’s past favors. Such a reminder is certain to reassure him that with God’s support he could face any power or dictator. “And indeed We bestowed Our favor upon you in time gone by.” The One who granted him all this protection and support will not let him down. His favors have been continuous, provided in times gone by. It is unlikely that it should stop now after Moses has been assigned a mission by God. The favor mentioned first is that inspiration to his mother which any woman in her condition would have needed. Her inspiration then told her: “Place (your child) in a chest and throw it into the river. The river will cast him ashore.”
We note here that the text describes rough and violent actions: a child being pushed into a chest of wood, and the chest is thrown in the river, and then the river casts the box and the child inside it on the shore. But what then? What happens to this child treated in this way and thrown in the Nile with such a rough treatment? To whose care will he be entrusted? The answer is: “An enemy to Me and an enemy to him will pick him up.”
But in the midst of all these worries and rough treatment, what happens to the helpless child thrown in the Nile without help or support? What happens to the wooden box carried aimlessly in the river? Amidst all this: “I lavished My love on you, so that you may be reared under My watchful eye.”
That is an aspect of Divine providence which transforms love and compassion into a shield to protect the child from all the blows and all the waves and currents. Thus none of the powers of evil is able to harm the recipient of such love, even though he is no more than an infant of only a few days who cannot indicate his needs or express his feelings.
We have in this scene a rare image of contrast between the great tyrannical forces lying in wait to capture the little infant and the hard circumstances engulfing him all on the one hand and the flowing compassion guarding him from all fears and protecting him against all dangers. His protection comes all as tender love, without fighting or confrontation: “I lavished My love on you, so that you may be reared under My watchful eye.” Nothing may be added to explain such a gentle and loving tenderness than this most perfect Qur’anic expression of how Moses was to be reared under God’s watchful eye. How can human expression describe a creature reared under such care? The most that we can do is to contemplate the situation and what it means in Moses’s development. It is a great honor for any human being to have direct Divine care for a moment in his life. What honor is bestowed on one who is reared under such care? Perhaps this is what made Moses able to receive this direct address from God.
Thus Moses is reared under God’s protection right under Pharaoh’s nose, and Pharaoh is the enemy of both God and Moses. Thus, as a young child he is brought up and he is all the time within an arm’s reach of Pharaoh, without any human guard or protector. Nevertheless, Pharaoh’s evil hand is restrained by the fact that God has lavished His love on Moses, the child, so that he attracts love by all who see him. Needless to say, with Moses being reared under God’s watchful eye, no harm could come to him from Pharaoh or anyone else.
But this is not all. It is not only Moses that was taken care of. His mother could not be left at home worrying about her child. The two were soon to be reunited.
“Then your sister went forth and said (to Pharaoh’s people): ‘Shall I direct you to one who might take care of him?’ Thus did We restore you to your mother, so that her mind might be set at ease and that she might not grieve.”
That was part of God’s design. He prevented the little baby from taking any woman’s breast. No wet nurse could breast-feed him. Pharaoh and his wife, who had adopted the baby cast to them by the river, were searching for a wet nurse, and people heard about this so that it became well known. On instructions from her mother, Moses’s sister goes straight to them saying that she knows the best woman to take care of the baby child. (All this is described in detail in Surah 28). She brings them the baby’s own mother and he takes her breast immediately. Thus, God’s design for mother and child is accomplished, for the mother did as she was told and threw her baby in a wooden chest in the Nile. That action brought the baby to the enemy who was killing all Israelite children. Thus, the safety of this child is accomplished by giving him to his enemies to remain with them, with no other support or guardianship.
But the favors Moses was shown in his previous life are by no means over yet. We will look at what the surah has to say about these, next week, God willing.