Some days in this series are one life told slowly. Today is different. It is the corridor between two giants, Musa who has just left us and Dawud who is about to arrive, and Mufti Menk walks us down it past a handful of figures most of us have never had named for us: a prophet who led a new generation into the holy land, a people who tried to outrun death, a man Allah let sleep through a whole century, and finally a shepherd boy nobody took seriously.
It looks like a string of loose episodes. It is not. Underneath every one of them is a single question your own faith hangs on, the question of whether Allah can give life back to the dead, and the answer the corridor keeps returning, again and again, in different voices: yes, easily, watch.
Musa is told it is time
When we left Musa, peace be upon him, his people were being walked in circles. They had refused to enter the holy land when he led them to its edge, so Allah sentenced them to forty years of wandering: every morning they set out, and every evening they were back where they began. Harun, peace be upon him, died in those years, and then, in those same years, death came for Musa himself.
Mufti Menk tells the moment from an authentic narration of the Prophet ﷺ, and it is a strange and tender one. When the angel of death came to Musa and told him his time had come, Musa struck him. The angel returned to his Lord: You sent me to a servant who does not want to die. So Allah sent him back with an offer. Put your hand on the back of an ox, Musa; for every hair beneath your palm, another year of life. And Musa asked the only question that matters: and then what? And then, death. In that case, he said, let it come now. The man who would not be slapped into the grave walked into it willingly the instant he understood that no number of years changes the destination.
Mufti Menk turns it on us before we can look away. Someone once asked him about donating their body to science after death, so an organ might give another person a few more years. His point was never a ruling on medicine, but a question for the heart: how many years, he asked back, five, ten? It is the same arithmetic Musa did. If you are not ready to meet Allah now, when exactly will you be ready? Allah even says of some who came after, you will find them clinging to life more than anyone, and you can watch it today in the men who pay to freeze their bodies hoping a future century will thaw them back. We will not outrun the meeting. Far better to prepare for it. Musa, peace be upon him, asked only to live long enough to see the holy land entered; when he saw that was not Allah's decree, he let go without a fight. He was buried, the Prophet ﷺ tells us, near a red sandhill by the roadside, and on the Night Journey he ﷺ passed him there, standing in prayer in his grave.
A new generation, and the sun that waited
After Musa, Allah raised a prophet to finish what the wandering generation would not: Yusha ibn Nun, Joshua, peace be upon him. Many scholars hold he was the very youth who had carried the basket of fish on Musa's journey to meet al-Khidr, grown now into the man Allah chose to lead the people in. And Mufti Menk notes the quiet mercy in the timing. The forty years were not wasted; they were a changing of the guard. Not one of those who had worshipped the calf and defied Musa marched in Yusha's army. An entire generation had passed, and a new one, raised under the eyes of the pious, born free of the old fear, was the one Allah permitted at last to enter Jerusalem.
Here Mufti Menk tells one of the most arresting signs in the whole series, again from an authentic hadith of the Prophet ﷺ. Yusha had laid siege to the city, victory was close, and the sun was setting, which would force the army to break off until morning. So he spoke to the sun. Allah has commanded me, and Allah has commanded you; by His command I tell you to hold. And Allah heard him, and held the sun in its place until the victory was won, and only then let it set. The whole machinery of the sky paused for the prayer of one obedient servant. We ask Allah, Mufti Menk says, for that softness of heart, the kind that still trembles when it hears what its Lord can do.
The people who ran from death
أَلَمْ تَرَ إِلَى ٱلَّذِينَ خَرَجُوا۟ مِن دِيَٰرِهِمْ وَهُمْ أُلُوفٌ حَذَرَ ٱلْمَوْتِ فَقَالَ لَهُمُ ٱللَّهُ مُوتُوا۟ ثُمَّ أَحْيَٰهُمْ ۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ لَذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى ٱلنَّاسِ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَ ٱلنَّاسِ لَا يَشْكُرُونَ
“Have you not considered those who left their homes in many thousands, fearing death? Allāh said to them, "Die"; then He restored them to life. And Allāh is the possessor of bounty for the people, but most of the people do not show gratitude.”
Surah al-Baqarah 2:243 Read 2:243 with tafsir
After Yusha, the Children of Israel stayed in that land but never settled into peace: war on the outside against the tyrants around them, and quarrels on the inside among their own twelve tribes. Into that broken time Allah kept sending men. One of them was Hizqeel, whom Mufti Menk introduces with the honesty this whole pillar runs on: whether he was a prophet of Allah or simply a deeply righteous man, the scholars differ, so we say only, peace be upon him, and leave it there. We never harden what revelation left soft.
His story is short and it should stop you cold. A plague broke out, and thousands fled their homes in terror of dying, climbed to the safety of high ground, and settled there sure they had escaped. Then Allah said to them, one word, die. And they all died at once, the very thing they had run from, caught the moment they thought they had outrun it. Allah needs no cause to take a soul; the heart attack and the accident, Mufti Menk says, are mercies, something He gives us to blame so the going is gentle. Here He simply commanded it. And then, the other half of the verse, He restored them to life. They were a sign: you cannot flee the death Allah writes, and you cannot imagine the life He can give back. Most people, the verse ends, will not be grateful for either.
A hundred years, and a meal still warm
أَوْ كَٱلَّذِى مَرَّ عَلَىٰ قَرْيَةٍ وَهِىَ خَاوِيَةٌ عَلَىٰ عُرُوشِهَا قَالَ أَنَّىٰ يُحْىِۦ هَٰذِهِ ٱللَّهُ بَعْدَ مَوْتِهَا ۖ فَأَمَاتَهُ ٱللَّهُ مِا۟ئَةَ عَامٍ ثُمَّ بَعَثَهُۥ ۖ قَالَ كَمْ لَبِثْتَ ۖ قَالَ لَبِثْتُ يَوْمًا أَوْ بَعْضَ يَوْمٍ ۖ قَالَ بَل لَّبِثْتَ مِا۟ئَةَ عَامٍ فَٱنظُرْ إِلَىٰ طَعَامِكَ وَشَرَابِكَ لَمْ يَتَسَنَّهْ ۖ وَٱنظُرْ إِلَىٰ حِمَارِكَ وَلِنَجْعَلَكَ ءَايَةً لِّلنَّاسِ ۖ وَٱنظُرْ إِلَى ٱلْعِظَامِ كَيْفَ نُنشِزُهَا ثُمَّ نَكْسُوهَا لَحْمًا ۚ فَلَمَّا تَبَيَّنَ لَهُۥ قَالَ أَعْلَمُ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ كُلِّ شَىْءٍ قَدِيرٌ
“Or [consider such an example] as the one who passed by a township which had fallen into ruin. He said, "How will Allāh bring this to life after its death?" So Allāh caused him to die for a hundred years; then He revived him. He said, "How long have you remained?" He [the man] said, "I have remained a day or part of a day." He said, "Rather, you have remained one hundred years. Look at your food and your drink; it has not changed with time. And look at your donkey; and We will make you a sign for the people. And look at the bones [of this donkey] - how We raise them and then We cover them with flesh." And when it became clear to him, he said, "I know that Allāh is over all things competent."”
Surah al-Baqarah 2:259 Read 2:259 with tafsir
Then comes the man the Qur'an does not name but the reports often call Uzair, peace be upon him, and again Mufti Menk keeps the door open: prophet or righteous man, the scholars differ. He passed a town fallen to ruin, its roofs caved in, its people long dead, and a question rose in him, not from doubt but from wonder: how will Allah ever bring this back to life? He wanted to see it. So Allah showed him, by making him the demonstration. Allah caused him to die for a hundred years, then woke him, and asked: how long were you here? A day, he said, or part of a day. A hundred years had passed.
Mufti Menk lingers on the gift hidden inside that, because we feel it every night. A century gone, and it felt like an afternoon nap, the way sleep folds the longest night into the single second your eye finally closes. No science has ever fully explained sleep, or the dream, that a man can wander gardens while the man asleep beside him sweats in a nightmare, and neither can reach into the other's world. These are not small things; they are daily proofs of the One who made them. Then Allah gave Uzair the evidence in his hands. Look at your food and drink, after a hundred years, not gone stale. Now look at your donkey: only bones. And watch. He watched the bones lift and knit and clothe themselves in flesh until the animal stood again, his own donkey, alive. And he said it, the line the whole corridor has been building toward: I know that Allah is over all things competent.
When a miracle is mistaken for a god
What happened next is the warning Mufti Menk will not let pass. When Uzair walked back, a hundred years on, no one knew him; his own children had aged past recognising him, and only one woman beyond a hundred, whose sight Allah restored at his du'a, and a birthmark his children remembered, confirmed who he was. And it is said that the Torah had by then been lost in all the fighting and pulling apart, and that Uzair, who had it by heart, dictated it back to the people from memory.
So a man returns from a hundred years dead, restores the lost scripture, and the miracles cluster on him, and his people make the leap a heart should never make. They began to say Uzair is the son of God. Allah records it in the Qur'an, naming it beside the very same claim made later about Isa, peace be upon him. Mufti Menk draws the line plainly, and reverently, never with scorn: a few signs ran through a man's life, and people turned the servant into a son, the gift into a god. It is a test, he says, the same test that meets every messenger who is given something extraordinary. The miracle was never Uzair's to own; it was Allah's, on loan, to point back to Allah. The lesson reaches all the way to us: when you see the gift, thank the Giver, and never let the wonder of the sign pull your worship away from the One who sent it.
A people who wanted a king
وَقَالَ لَهُمْ نَبِيُّهُمْ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ قَدْ بَعَثَ لَكُمْ طَالُوتَ مَلِكًا ۚ قَالُوٓا۟ أَنَّىٰ يَكُونُ لَهُ ٱلْمُلْكُ عَلَيْنَا وَنَحْنُ أَحَقُّ بِٱلْمُلْكِ مِنْهُ وَلَمْ يُؤْتَ سَعَةً مِّنَ ٱلْمَالِ ۚ قَالَ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ ٱصْطَفَىٰهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَزَادَهُۥ بَسْطَةً فِى ٱلْعِلْمِ وَٱلْجِسْمِ ۖ وَٱللَّهُ يُؤْتِى مُلْكَهُۥ مَن يَشَآءُ ۚ وَٱللَّهُ وَٰسِعٌ عَلِيمٌ
“And their prophet said to them, "Indeed, Allāh has sent to you Saul as a king." They said, "How can he have kingship over us while we are more worthy of kingship than him and he has not been given any measure of wealth?" He said, "Indeed, Allāh has chosen him over you and has increased him abundantly in knowledge and stature. And Allāh gives His sovereignty to whom He wills. And Allāh is all-Encompassing [in favor] and Knowing."”
Surah al-Baqarah 2:247 Read 2:247 with tafsir
The Children of Israel carried a box, the taboot, the Ark, in which lay fragments of the tablets Musa had been given and other relics; whenever they took it into battle they felt secure, and they won. Then, in a time of deep disobedience, it was lost in a war, and their king of the day, hearing the news, dropped dead on the spot. After him they had no king, and they came to their prophet, the one the reports call Samuel, peace be upon him, with a demand: send us a king, and we will fight in the way of Allah for the land that was taken from us.
The prophet read them exactly. Perhaps, he said, if fighting is written for you, you will not fight, the way your fathers refused Musa. They swore they would, driven from their homes and their children as they had been. So Allah named the king: Talut, the one the Bible calls Saul, a man of Bani Israil though not a prophet. And at once they rejected him, on the two grounds men always reach for. He is not from the noble tribe. And he is not rich. Mufti Menk holds the mirror up: we are no different, we still measure a leader by his wealth and his lineage before we ever weigh his knowledge or his worth. But Allah answered over their heads, in words worth keeping: Allah has chosen him over you and given him an abundance in knowledge and in physical strength, and Allah gives His kingship to whom He wills. Take the lesson, Mufti Menk says: when truth reaches you, do not weigh the messenger by his pocket or his name. Whatever reached you was never meant to miss you, and you will answer for what you did with it.
The river, and how many a small company
فَلَمَّا فَصَلَ طَالُوتُ بِٱلْجُنُودِ قَالَ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ مُبْتَلِيكُم بِنَهَرٍ فَمَن شَرِبَ مِنْهُ فَلَيْسَ مِنِّى وَمَن لَّمْ يَطْعَمْهُ فَإِنَّهُۥ مِنِّىٓ إِلَّا مَنِ ٱغْتَرَفَ غُرْفَةًۢ بِيَدِهِۦ ۚ فَشَرِبُوا۟ مِنْهُ إِلَّا قَلِيلًا مِّنْهُمْ ۚ فَلَمَّا جَاوَزَهُۥ هُوَ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ مَعَهُۥ قَالُوا۟ لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا ٱلْيَوْمَ بِجَالُوتَ وَجُنُودِهِۦ ۚ قَالَ ٱلَّذِينَ يَظُنُّونَ أَنَّهُم مُّلَٰقُوا۟ ٱللَّهِ كَم مِّن فِئَةٍ قَلِيلَةٍ غَلَبَتْ فِئَةً كَثِيرَةًۢ بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ ۗ وَٱللَّهُ مَعَ ٱلصَّٰبِرِينَ
“And when Saul went forth with the soldiers, he said, "Indeed, Allāh will be testing you with a river. So whoever drinks from it is not of me, and whoever does not taste it is indeed of me, excepting one who takes [from it] in the hollow of his hand." But they drank from it, except a [very] few of them. Then when he had crossed it along with those who believed with him, they said, "There is no power for us today against Goliath and his soldiers." But those who were certain that they would meet Allāh said, "How many a small company has overcome a large company by permission of Allāh. And Allāh is with the patient."”
Surah al-Baqarah 2:249 Read 2:249 with tafsir
Talut marched out, and the reports put his army near eighty thousand. He was too wise to trust a crowd that size, knowing how many among them would break the first command they disliked, so Allah set a test at a river on a hot and thirsty day: do not drink, save a single handful in your palm. It was small. It was simple. And the bulk of them, parched, plunged in and drank their fill, disobeying at the very first instruction. Of eighty thousand, the historians say, some seventy-six thousand failed the river. Only a few thousand crossed.
And even those few faltered when they saw what waited on the far bank: Jalut, Goliath, an enormous man at the head of an enormous army, and the cry went up, we have no power today against Jalut and his soldiers. But not everyone said it. The ones who were certain they would meet Allah answered them with the line Mufti Menk says is their whole history in a sentence: how many a small company has overcome a large company by the permission of Allah, and Allah is with the patient. This, he says, is the law underneath every battle that matters. Numbers do not decide it; conviction and patience do. The one who runs becomes a statistic; the one who holds, by Allah's leave, wins. And he points straight ahead to where this pillar is going, to the day the Prophet ﷺ would stand at Badr with three hundred and thirteen against a thousand, and Allah would hand the few the victory, exactly as He did here. The believers at the river were rehearsing Badr centuries before Badr.
A boy, a sling, and the fall of Jalut
فَهَزَمُوهُم بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ وَقَتَلَ دَاوُۥدُ جَالُوتَ وَءَاتَىٰهُ ٱللَّهُ ٱلْمُلْكَ وَٱلْحِكْمَةَ وَعَلَّمَهُۥ مِمَّا يَشَآءُ ۗ وَلَوْلَا دَفْعُ ٱللَّهِ ٱلنَّاسَ بَعْضَهُم بِبَعْضٍ لَّفَسَدَتِ ٱلْأَرْضُ وَلَٰكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ ذُو فَضْلٍ عَلَى ٱلْعَٰلَمِينَ
“So they defeated them by permission of Allāh, and David killed Goliath, and Allāh gave him the kingship and wisdom [i.e., prophethood] and taught him from that which He willed. And if it were not for Allāh checking [some] people by means of others, the earth would have been corrupted, but Allāh is the possessor of bounty for the worlds.”
Surah al-Baqarah 2:251 Read 2:251 with tafsir
Before the armies clashed they did what was done in those days: a single combat to set the morale, your champion against ours. Jalut stepped out, sword drawn, scoffing. And from the believers' side came a young shepherd with a stick in one hand and a sling and a few pebbles in the other. He told the king he would go. The whole field laughed, Mufti Menk says, Jalut loudest of all, telling the boy one swing of his sword would take off his head. They tried to fit him with armour and it was too heavy; he took it off. He had killed a lion that came for his sheep, he said, and a bear with his bare hands. They let him go.
This was Dawud, David, peace be upon him. He set a pebble in the sling, said Bismillah, swung, and let it fly straight at Jalut's head. The giant dropped, and within a breath he was dead on the ground, cold, and his whole army broke. Allah seals the scene Himself: so they defeated them by Allah's permission, and Dawud killed Jalut, and Allah gave him kingship and wisdom and taught him what He willed. The boy who had passed the river without drinking, who had obeyed when thousands disobeyed, was the one Allah raised to a throne, and we will follow him there tomorrow. Mufti Menk closes the verse on the line that holds the whole corridor of war together: were it not for Allah repelling one people by means of another, the earth would have gone to ruin, but Allah is full of bounty to all the worlds. The small band, the obedient boy, the falling giant, none of it was the boy's strength. It was Allah, working His will through the few who would not run.