The sea has closed over Pharaoh. The man who killed their sons and enslaved their fathers is gone, swallowed whole, and the Children of Israel are standing alive on the far shore, soaked and free, having walked across the floor of an ocean. You would think a people could not forget a morning like that. You would think it would last them a lifetime.
It did not last them a week. This is day twenty-two of twenty-nine, and Mufti Menk takes us into the strangest stretch of Musa's story, peace be upon him: not his fight with a tyrant, but his struggle with the very people he saved. A nation given more miracles than any before them, and a heart that kept slipping back to what it had just been rescued from.
Saved at dawn, asking for an idol by noon
وَجَٰوَزْنَا بِبَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ ٱلْبَحْرَ فَأَتَوْا۟ عَلَىٰ قَوْمٍ يَعْكُفُونَ عَلَىٰٓ أَصْنَامٍ لَّهُمْ ۚ قَالُوا۟ يَٰمُوسَى ٱجْعَل لَّنَآ إِلَٰهًا كَمَا لَهُمْ ءَالِهَةٌ ۚ قَالَ إِنَّكُمْ قَوْمٌ تَجْهَلُونَ
“And We took the Children of Israel across the sea; then they came upon a people intent in devotion to [some] idols of theirs. They [the Children of Israel] said, "O Moses, make for us a god just as they have gods." He said, "Indeed, you are a people behaving ignorantly."”
Surah al-A'raf 7:138 Read 7:138 with tafsir
They had barely dried off. On the road they passed a people bent over a row of idols, tending them, and something in the crowd lit up. O Musa, they said, make us a god like theirs. Mufti Menk will not let that sentence slip past quietly, and neither should you: these were the people who, moments ago, watched the One God split a sea for them and drown an empire. And the first thing the freedom did was make them want to copy the strangers by the roadside. Not everything you see around you is correct, he says. What looks good is not always good, and the crowd is not your evidence.
Musa's answer is blunt: you are a people who simply do not understand. And here Mufti Menk reaches forward in time to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, because this exact weakness shadowed even the best of nations. On an early expedition, some of the companions passed a tree the pagans used to hang their weapons on for blessing, and they asked him ﷺ to give them a tree like it. He answered that this was the very thing the people of Musa said: make us a god as they have gods. The pull to belong, to do what the room is doing, is older than Israel and as near as your own hands. Faith is knowing the difference between what looks alive and what is actually true.
Water from a rock, food from the sky
وَإِذِ ٱسْتَسْقَىٰ مُوسَىٰ لِقَوْمِهِۦ فَقُلْنَا ٱضْرِب بِّعَصَاكَ ٱلْحَجَرَ ۖ فَٱنفَجَرَتْ مِنْهُ ٱثْنَتَا عَشْرَةَ عَيْنًا ۖ قَدْ عَلِمَ كُلُّ أُنَاسٍ مَّشْرَبَهُمْ ۖ كُلُوا۟ وَٱشْرَبُوا۟ مِن رِّزْقِ ٱللَّهِ وَلَا تَعْثَوْا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ مُفْسِدِينَ
“And [recall] when Moses prayed for water for his people, so We said, "Strike with your staff the stone." And there gushed forth from it twelve springs, and every people [i.e., tribe] knew its watering place. "Eat and drink from the provision of Allāh, and do not commit abuse on the earth, spreading corruption."”
Surah al-Baqarah 2:60 Read 2:60 with tafsir
وَظَلَّلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْغَمَامَ وَأَنزَلْنَا عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلْمَنَّ وَٱلسَّلْوَىٰ ۖ كُلُوا۟ مِن طَيِّبَٰتِ مَا رَزَقْنَٰكُمْ ۖ وَمَا ظَلَمُونَا وَلَٰكِن كَانُوٓا۟ أَنفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ
“And We shaded you with clouds and sent down to you manna and quails, [saying], "Eat from the good things with which We have provided you." And they wronged Us not - but they were [only] wronging themselves.”
Surah al-Baqarah 2:57 Read 2:57 with tafsir
Now they were in raw desert, no Egypt, no river, no shade, and they were thirsty. They came to Musa and asked him to pray. He was told to take the same staff that had parted the sea and strike a rock, and twelve springs burst out of it, one for each of the twelve tribes descended from Yaqub, peace be upon him, every family knowing exactly which water was theirs. Mufti Menk pauses on why this landed as more than a magician's trick: Egypt was the world capital of magic, and the very best of its sorcerers had already believed in Musa, because they alone knew the gap between an illusion and a sign. A magician can make a spring look like it is gushing. He cannot make you drink from it.
Then they were hungry, and Allah fed them out of the open sky. A cloud was spread above them as a roof against the sun, and down came al-mann and as-salwa, a sweet provision and a bird, some say the quail, descending on a people who had planted nothing. Eat of the good things, He told them, and be grateful. Read those two ayat slowly, Mufti Menk says, because the closing words are the whole point: they did not wrong Us, but they were wronging themselves. Every favour was a rope thrown down from above. What they did with it was about to decide everything.
Forty nights, and a brother left in charge
وَوَٰعَدْنَا مُوسَىٰ ثَلَٰثِينَ لَيْلَةً وَأَتْمَمْنَٰهَا بِعَشْرٍ فَتَمَّ مِيقَٰتُ رَبِّهِۦٓ أَرْبَعِينَ لَيْلَةً ۚ وَقَالَ مُوسَىٰ لِأَخِيهِ هَٰرُونَ ٱخْلُفْنِى فِى قَوْمِى وَأَصْلِحْ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ سَبِيلَ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ
“And We made an appointment with Moses for thirty nights and perfected them by [the addition of] ten; so the term of his Lord was completed as forty nights. And Moses said to his brother Aaron, "Take my place among my people, do right [by them], and do not follow the way of the corrupters."”
Surah al-A'raf 7:142 Read 7:142 with tafsir
A freed people with no law is just a mob with good memories, and Musa knew it. So he asked his Lord for guidance to govern them by, and he was called to the mountain: thirty nights of fasting and worship in seclusion, completed by ten more, forty nights in all, at the same spot where Allah had first spoken to him. There he would be given the tablets, the commandments the Qur'an still carries. Mufti Menk notes the honest seam in the story here, the one the believer should hold lightly: the precise order of these desert events is not always certain in the records, but every piece of it is in the Qur'an, and that is what makes it sure.
Before he climbed, Musa turned to his brother. Take my place among my people, he said to Harun, peace be upon him, set things right, and do not follow the way of the corrupters. It is a striking warning to leave a prophet with. Why caution Harun against the troublemakers? Because the troublemakers were strong: they had carried off Pharaoh's gold as they fled, armfuls of it, and a crowd with gold and grievance is a dangerous thing to leave behind. Musa went up the mountain trusting his brother with a nation. The nation had other plans.
Show me Yourself
وَلَمَّا جَآءَ مُوسَىٰ لِمِيقَٰتِنَا وَكَلَّمَهُۥ رَبُّهُۥ قَالَ رَبِّ أَرِنِىٓ أَنظُرْ إِلَيْكَ ۚ قَالَ لَن تَرَىٰنِى وَلَٰكِنِ ٱنظُرْ إِلَى ٱلْجَبَلِ فَإِنِ ٱسْتَقَرَّ مَكَانَهُۥ فَسَوْفَ تَرَىٰنِى ۚ فَلَمَّا تَجَلَّىٰ رَبُّهُۥ لِلْجَبَلِ جَعَلَهُۥ دَكًّا وَخَرَّ مُوسَىٰ صَعِقًا ۚ فَلَمَّآ أَفَاقَ قَالَ سُبْحَٰنَكَ تُبْتُ إِلَيْكَ وَأَنَا۠ أَوَّلُ ٱلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
“And when Moses arrived at Our appointed time and his Lord spoke to him, he said, "My Lord, show me [Yourself] that I may look at You." [Allāh] said, "You will not see Me, but look at the mountain; if it should remain in place, then you will see Me." But when his Lord appeared to the mountain, He rendered it level, and Moses fell unconscious. And when he awoke, he said, "Exalted are You! I have repented to You, and I am the first [among my people] of the believers."”
Surah al-A'raf 7:143 Read 7:143 with tafsir
On the mountain, in the middle of the conversation no other man on earth was having, Musa asked for the one thing his heart could not stop wanting. My Lord, show me Yourself, that I may look at You. Not doubt: he believed completely. It was love straining at the limit of what a body can hold. The answer was gentle and absolute. You will not see Me, not here, not with these eyes, not in this world. But look at the mountain; if it holds its place, you will see Me.
Then the smallest unveiling of his Lord's light touched the mountain, and the mountain came apart, crushed to dust, and Musa dropped as if struck dead. When he came to, his first words were not a complaint but a surrender: Exalted are You, I turn to You, and I am the first of the believers. Mufti Menk draws the awe out of it plainly. If a mountain cannot stand a fraction of that light and Musa himself collapsed, what was he asking for? It is the same lesson the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would later carry home from the heavens on the Night Journey: there are heights of nearness Allah grants His prophets, and there are limits He sets, and the believer's place is to say, as Musa did, glory be to You, I have repented to You.
A calf with a hollow voice
وَٱتَّخَذَ قَوْمُ مُوسَىٰ مِنۢ بَعْدِهِۦ مِنْ حُلِيِّهِمْ عِجْلًا جَسَدًا لَّهُۥ خُوَارٌ ۚ أَلَمْ يَرَوْا۟ أَنَّهُۥ لَا يُكَلِّمُهُمْ وَلَا يَهْدِيهِمْ سَبِيلًا ۘ ٱتَّخَذُوهُ وَكَانُوا۟ ظَٰلِمِينَ
“And the people of Moses made, after [his departure], from their ornaments a calf - an image having a lowing sound. Did they not see that it could neither speak to them nor guide them to a way? They took it [for worship], and they were wrongdoers.”
Surah al-A'raf 7:148 Read 7:148 with tafsir
فَأَخْرَجَ لَهُمْ عِجْلًا جَسَدًا لَّهُۥ خُوَارٌ فَقَالُوا۟ هَٰذَآ إِلَٰهُكُمْ وَإِلَٰهُ مُوسَىٰ فَنَسِىَ
“And he extracted for them [the statue of] a calf which had a lowing sound, and they said, "This is your god and the god of Moses, but he forgot."”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:88 Read 20:88 with tafsir
While Musa was gone, a man named the Samiri went to work. He told the people he had seen something no one else had seen, a trace of the dust from where the angel's horse had passed, and that he had gathered a handful of it. Mufti Menk smiles at how familiar this is: the person who pulls a curious thing from his pocket and insists it is holy, daring you to argue. The Samiri ordered the crowd to throw in all of Pharaoh's gold, melted it down, and out of it shaped a calf. He left it hollow, and when the wind passed through it, it lowed. A faint animal sound from a thing of metal, and that was enough. It has life in it, they said. Listen. And they bowed to it.
Harun stood in the middle of it and pleaded with them. What are you doing? This is not your Lord. They brushed him aside: we will not stop worshipping it until Musa comes back. The Qur'an is merciless about the absurdity of the choice, and Mufti Menk lets it sting: did they not see that it could not speak to them, could not answer them, could not guide them anywhere? A god you have to carry, that cannot even reply, was preferred over the One who had just split a sea. This, he says, is what the heart does when it is left untended: it does not stay empty, it fills with whatever is loudest in the room.
Musa returns, and seizes his brother
وَلَمَّا رَجَعَ مُوسَىٰٓ إِلَىٰ قَوْمِهِۦ غَضْبَٰنَ أَسِفًا قَالَ بِئْسَمَا خَلَفْتُمُونِى مِنۢ بَعْدِىٓ ۖ أَعَجِلْتُمْ أَمْرَ رَبِّكُمْ ۖ وَأَلْقَى ٱلْأَلْوَاحَ وَأَخَذَ بِرَأْسِ أَخِيهِ يَجُرُّهُۥٓ إِلَيْهِ ۚ قَالَ ٱبْنَ أُمَّ إِنَّ ٱلْقَوْمَ ٱسْتَضْعَفُونِى وَكَادُوا۟ يَقْتُلُونَنِى فَلَا تُشْمِتْ بِىَ ٱلْأَعْدَآءَ وَلَا تَجْعَلْنِى مَعَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
“And when Moses returned to his people, angry and grieved, he said, "How wretched is that by which you have replaced me after [my departure]. Were you impatient over the matter of your Lord?" And he threw down the tablets and seized his brother by [the hair of] his head, pulling him toward him. [Aaron] said, "O son of my mother, indeed the people overpowered me and were about to kill me, so let not the enemies rejoice over me and do not place me among the wrongdoing people."”
Surah al-A'raf 7:150 Read 7:150 with tafsir
قَالَ يَبْنَؤُمَّ لَا تَأْخُذْ بِلِحْيَتِى وَلَا بِرَأْسِىٓ ۖ إِنِّى خَشِيتُ أَن تَقُولَ فَرَّقْتَ بَيْنَ بَنِىٓ إِسْرَٰٓءِيلَ وَلَمْ تَرْقُبْ قَوْلِى
“[Aaron] said, "O son of my mother, do not seize [me] by my beard or by my head. Indeed, I feared that you would say, 'You caused division among the Children of Israel, and you did not observe [or await] my word.'"”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:94 Read 20:94 with tafsir
Musa came down carrying the tablets and a heart full of what he had seen, and walked into a nation dancing around a metal calf. The grief in him was total. He threw down the tablets and reached for his brother, taking Harun by the head and the beard and pulling him close, demanding to know how he could have let this happen. Mufti Menk reminds you this was a powerful man undone, not by anger at strangers, but by anguish over his own.
Harun's reply is one of the tenderest lines in the whole story. Son of my mother, do not seize my beard or my head. I feared that if I came down hard on them, the community would split in two, and that you would return and say, Harun, you divided the Children of Israel and did not wait for me. He had been overpowered, nearly killed, and he had chosen to hold a fracturing people together for his brother's sake rather than break them apart. It was, Mufti Menk is honest, a grave matter, plain shirk in the camp, and Harun had done everything he could short of starting a civil war. He tolerated one wound to prevent a worse one. When Musa understood, the anger turned where it belonged.
The Samiri, and a god thrown into the sea
قَالَ فَٱذْهَبْ فَإِنَّ لَكَ فِى ٱلْحَيَوٰةِ أَن تَقُولَ لَا مِسَاسَ ۖ وَإِنَّ لَكَ مَوْعِدًا لَّن تُخْلَفَهُۥ ۖ وَٱنظُرْ إِلَىٰٓ إِلَٰهِكَ ٱلَّذِى ظَلْتَ عَلَيْهِ عَاكِفًا ۖ لَّنُحَرِّقَنَّهُۥ ثُمَّ لَنَنسِفَنَّهُۥ فِى ٱلْيَمِّ نَسْفًا
“[Moses] said, "Then go. And indeed, it is [decreed] for you in [this] life to say, 'No contact.' And indeed, you have an appointment [in the Hereafter] you will not fail to keep. And look at your 'god' to which you remained devoted. We will surely burn it and blow it [i.e., its ashes] into the sea with a blast."”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:97 Read 20:97 with tafsir
Allah had told Musa who was behind it, so he turned to the Samiri: what did you do? And the man answered without a flicker of regret, that he saw what others did not see, took a handful from the track of the messenger and threw it, and that his own soul had talked him into the rest. No repentance, nothing. So Musa pronounced his sentence: go, and for the rest of your life your words to every person who comes near will be only, no contact, do not touch me. He was struck with an affliction that left him an outcast, mouthing those two words until he died, and beyond that an appointment with Allah he could never escape.
Then Musa turned to the calf itself, the thing they had sworn they could not abandon. Look at your god, he said, the one you would not leave: we will burn it and scatter its ashes into the sea. And he did. The god that lowed in the wind was reduced to dust on the water. Mufti Menk lands the warning where it belongs, in your own time: there are Samiris in every age, the clever, passionate voices who dress something up as religion and dare you not to follow. Some of us are still made to bow to calves of one kind or another, to poles and people and things with a hollow voice. The lesson of this whole day, he says, is to recognise them, and to refuse.
The mountain held over their heads
وَإِذْ أَخَذْنَا مِيثَٰقَكُمْ وَرَفَعْنَا فَوْقَكُمُ ٱلطُّورَ خُذُوا۟ مَآ ءَاتَيْنَٰكُم بِقُوَّةٍ وَٱذْكُرُوا۟ مَا فِيهِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ
“And [recall] when We took your covenant, [O Children of Israel, to abide by the Torah] and We raised over you the mount, [saying], "Take what We have given you with determination and remember what is in it that perhaps you may become righteous."”
Surah al-Baqarah 2:63 Read 2:63 with tafsir
Even with the calf gone, the commandments were a hard sell. These were people who had grown used to doing as they pleased, and obeying did not come naturally. They did not want the law. So Allah did something Mufti Menk says is recorded in the Qur'an in more than one place: the whole mountain was lifted and held over them, lowering as if it would fall, and they were asked, will you take hold of what We have given you? Yes, they said, we give our covenant, we will keep it, and the mountain returned to its place. Even then, some held to the promise and some drifted right back, here and there, the way a crowd always does.
And here is where this entire episode bends toward you, sitting wherever you are reading this. Mufti Menk tells a story he had just told that very evening: imagine a wealthy man offers you the grandest building in the city, on one condition, that you come and speak with him for five minutes, five times a day. We would beg him for ten. Now look at what Allah asks. Not to lift weights, not to cross a sea, just to stand and speak with Him five times a day, and the reward is not one building but the whole world and far more. The Children of Israel needed a mountain held over their heads to keep a covenant. You have been handed the same kind of gift, the Qur'an, the Sunnah, the prayer, with no mountain over you at all, only the quiet question of whether you will hold to it when no one is forcing you.