Your Lord called Moses: “Go to the wrongdoing people, the people of Pharaoh. Will they have no fear of God?”
He said: “My Lord, I fear that they will charge me with falsehood, and then my breast will be straitened and my tongue will not be fluent. So send as well for Aaron. Moreover, they have a charge of crime against me, and I fear that they will kill me.”
Said He: “By no means! Go forth, then, both of you, with Our signs; We are with you, listening to all. Go, both of you, to Pharaoh, and say: ‘We are messengers from the Lord of all the worlds: Let the children of Israel go with us.’”
(Pharaoh) said (to Moses): “Did we not bring you up when you were an infant? And did you not stay with us many years of your life? Yet you have done that deed of yours while being an unbeliever.” Replied (Moses): “I committed it while I was still going astray; and I fled from you because I feared you. Then my Lord granted me sound judgment and made me one of (His) messengers. And what sort of favor is this you are taunting me with: Was it not because you had enslaved the children of Israel?” (The Poets: Al-Shu’ara: 26: 10-22)
Moses received his instructions from God that he should go with his brother, Aaron, to Pharaoh, reassured that God is with him, listening to everything being said. This is the utmost care that any servant of God could expect from the Lord of the heavens and the earth. The two prophets are told to clearly outline to Pharaoh their assigned mission, fearing nothing and hiding nothing: “Go, both of you, to Pharaoh, and say: ‘We are messengers from the Lord of all the worlds.’” (Verse 16) The Arabic text uses the singular form for “messenger” although the task is assigned to both Moses and Aaron. However, because the assignment given to both is a single one, they are treated as a single messenger to Pharaoh, the despot who claimed to be God and declared to his people: “I know of no deity for you other than myself!” (28: 38) Thus, the mission assigned to them is to declare the truth of God’s oneness right at the first moment, with no ambiguity or hesitation, and taking no precaution against any adverse reception. This is the truth that allows no half-measures.
As messengers from the Lord of the universe, they make their demands clear: “Let the children of Israel go with us.” (Verse 17) It is clear from this statement and similar ones in the Qur’an that Moses was not required to address his message to Pharaoh and his people, or to call on them to believe in his faith or implement the message entrusted to him. He simply required them to set the children of Israel free so that they could worship their Lord as they pleased. They were aware of their faith which they held since the time of their first father, Israel, or Jacob, (peace be upon him). This faith, however, had weakened in their hearts allowing alien beliefs to creep into it. Therefore, God sent them Moses to save them from Pharaoh’s injustice and to purge their monotheistic faith of all foreign, corrupt elements.
Up to this point we are looking at the scene of entrusting the message to Moses and Aaron, outlining their task for them. But the curtains fall here. When, a moment later, they are raised again, we are in full view of the scene of the confrontation with Pharaoh. What happens in between is typically deleted.
“(Pharaoh) said (to Moses): ‘Did we not bring you up when you were an infant? And did you not stay with us many years of your life? Yet you have done that deed of yours while being an unbeliever.’ Replied (Moses): ‘I committed it while I was still going astray; and I fled from you because I feared you. Then my Lord granted me sound judgment and made me one of (His) messengers. And what sort of favor is this you are taunting me with: Was it not because you had enslaved the children of Israel?’” (Verses 18-22)
Pharaoh is amazed as Moses makes his unexpected claim to be a messenger of God, the Lord of the universe, facing him with such a demand of freeing the children of Israel. The last thing he knew of Moses was that he was brought up in his palace after he was picked up as a newborn child placed in a basket floating in the Nile. As a young man he killed an Egyptian who was involved in a fight with an Israelite and ran away. It is said that the killed Egyptian belonged to Pharaoh’s entourage. This means that the gap was huge between the status of Moses at the time and the claims that he puts before Pharaoh merely ten years later. Hence, Pharaoh adopts a sarcastic attitude, asking in an affected air of surprise: “Did we not bring you up when you were an infant? And did you not stay with us many years of your life? Yet you have done that deed of yours while being an unbeliever.” Is this how you repay our kindness as we looked after you when you were a young child? Is it fair that you come today professing a religion other than ours, rebelling against the authority of the king who brought you up in his palace, and calling on people to abandon his worship?
How come that during all those years you stayed with us you did not mention anything of the wild claims you are making now, giving us no prelude to what was to come? Pharaoh then reminds Moses of the incident leading to the killing of the Egyptian, giving it an air of exaggeration: “Yet you have done that deed of yours...” It was a ghastly deed that should never be mentioned or described in real terms. Yet you did it “while being an unbeliever.” You did not believe then in the Lord of all the worlds, about whom you are now telling us.
Thus we see Pharaoh making what he thought to be a final argument to which Moses could have no reply, particularly the point about his killing of the Egyptian and the punishment that could be inflicted on him for committing it. His words are clearly meant as an implied threat.
Since God answered his prayer and cured his speech block, Moses rejoins with a clear reply: “I committed it while I was still going astray; and I fled from you because I feared you. Then my Lord granted me sound judgment and made me one of (His) messengers. And what sort of favor is this you are taunting me with: Was it not because you had enslaved the children of Israel?” (Verses 21-22) I did it when I was ignorant, rushing to defend anyone from among my people. This is different from my present commitment to my faith that is based on sound judgment granted me by my Lord. “I fled from you because I feared you.” But God has been good to me, bestowing on me the gift of wisdom and making me one of His messengers. I am not a unique phenomenon; rather, one of the chosen group of God’s messengers.
Moses then uses a touch of sarcasm in reply to Pharaoh’s own sarcastic remarks, but he only states the truth: “What sort of favor is this you are taunting me with: Was it not because you had enslaved the children of Israel?” The fact that I was reared in your palace came about only as a result of your enslavement of the children of Israel, and your killing of their children. This was the reason for my mother to put me in a basket and to throw it in the Nile. When your people picked me up, I was brought up in your palace, not in my parents’ home. What favor is this that you press against me?