Turn the pages of the Qur'an and one prophet keeps returning, in surah after surah, named in a hundred and twenty-four places, his life told in more stages than any other: his birth, his childhood, his flight, his years away, his return, his stand before a tyrant, and the long story of his own people afterward. That is Musa, peace be upon him, the most-told prophet in the whole Book. Mufti Menk gives him a series, and tonight it begins where the Qur'an begins it: not with the staff or the sea, but with a baby and a river.
This is day nineteen of twenty-nine. And the surah Allah chose to hold the most detail is named al-Qasas, 'the stories', plural, because there is not one lesson here but many. Watch the first one carefully, because it is the one this whole pillar keeps pointing at: the hand of Allah is most at work in exactly the place that looks most like the end of you.
A man who told the world he was god
إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ عَلَا فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَجَعَلَ أَهْلَهَا شِيَعًا يَسْتَضْعِفُ طَآئِفَةً مِّنْهُمْ يُذَبِّحُ أَبْنَآءَهُمْ وَيَسْتَحْىِۦ نِسَآءَهُمْ ۚ إِنَّهُۥ كَانَ مِنَ ٱلْمُفْسِدِينَ
“Indeed, Pharaoh exalted himself in the land and made its people into factions, oppressing a sector among them, slaughtering their [newborn] sons and keeping their females alive. Indeed, he was of the corrupters.”
Surah al-Qasas 28:4 Read 28:4 with tafsir
Egypt at that time was held in the fist of one man, and the Qur'an records the sentence he actually dared to say: I am your lord, the most high. He told his chiefs he knew of no god for them besides himself. Mufti Menk will not let that pass without exposing how hollow it was. The man ate and slept and fell sick like everyone else; he held councils and asked his advisors for their opinions, and later, when he needed to face Musa, he had to send for magicians. A god who consults, a god who calls for help, a god who is afraid: it gives him away. He knew, somewhere inside, that he was not at the top. Sometimes, Mufti Menk warns, a person thinks he knows so much that his brain becomes covered over, and he starts sounding like a fool.
And he had organised his whole kingdom around the lie. He split the people into ranks, with himself at the peak, his chiefs worshipping him just below, then slaves who served and worshipped him, then professionals he paid when he needed them. And beneath all of that, a people he kept crushed: Bani Israil, the children of Yaqub, the prophet also called Israil, peace be upon him. They were slaves, but they were the one group who knew with certainty that this man was not their god. So Allah opens with the verdict on him: he exalted himself in the land, broke his people into factions, and was of those who spread corruption.
The boys he killed, and the favour Allah promised
وَنُرِيدُ أَن نَّمُنَّ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ ٱسْتُضْعِفُوا۟ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَنَجْعَلَهُمْ أَئِمَّةً وَنَجْعَلَهُمُ ٱلْوَٰرِثِينَ
“And We wanted to confer favor upon those who were oppressed in the land and make them leaders and make them inheritors”
Surah al-Qasas 28:5 Read 28:5 with tafsir
وَنُمَكِّنَ لَهُمْ فِى ٱلْأَرْضِ وَنُرِىَ فِرْعَوْنَ وَهَٰمَٰنَ وَجُنُودَهُمَا مِنْهُم مَّا كَانُوا۟ يَحْذَرُونَ
“And establish them in the land and show Pharaoh and [his minister] Hāmān and their soldiers through them that which they had feared.”
Surah al-Qasas 28:6 Read 28:6 with tafsir
Then the killing began. The reports say Pharaoh had seen a dream, a fire that swept through and destroyed every house except the houses of Bani Israil, and it shook him so badly that he gathered his fortune-tellers to read it. Mufti Menk catches the contradiction and holds it up: a moment ago you were god, and now you need a magician to interpret a dream for you? They told him a boy would be born among the enslaved Israelites who would one day pull down everything he had built. So the tyrant did what tyrants do. He issued the order: slaughter every newborn son of Bani Israil, and leave the girls alive. Boys were cut down as they were born. Mufti Menk notes the reports that it ran every other year, and that this is no relic of the past, that the killing of a child for fear of what it might become is a policy the world has never fully put down.
But over the tyrant's plan, Allah lays His own, and He says it out loud in the very next breath, before a single rescue has happened. We intend, He says, to favour the very ones being ground into the dust, to make them leaders, to make them the inheritors, to establish them in the land, and to show Pharaoh and his minister Haman and their armies the one thing they were trying so hard to prevent. Read it slowly, Mufti Menk says, because it is the law underneath the whole story. The arrogant think their days are endless; their days are numbered. One day the ones they counted as nothing will stand above them. That is the plan of Allah. It is why a believer is taught never to look down on anyone: you do not know when the tables turn.
Put him in the river, and do not be afraid
وَأَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَىٰٓ أُمِّ مُوسَىٰٓ أَنْ أَرْضِعِيهِ ۖ فَإِذَا خِفْتِ عَلَيْهِ فَأَلْقِيهِ فِى ٱلْيَمِّ وَلَا تَخَافِى وَلَا تَحْزَنِىٓ ۖ إِنَّا رَآدُّوهُ إِلَيْكِ وَجَاعِلُوهُ مِنَ ٱلْمُرْسَلِينَ
“And We inspired to the mother of Moses, "Suckle him; but when you fear for him, cast him into the river and do not fear and do not grieve. Indeed, We will return him to you and will make him [one] of the messengers."”
Surah al-Qasas 28:7 Read 28:7 with tafsir
أَنِ ٱقْذِفِيهِ فِى ٱلتَّابُوتِ فَٱقْذِفِيهِ فِى ٱلْيَمِّ فَلْيُلْقِهِ ٱلْيَمُّ بِٱلسَّاحِلِ يَأْخُذْهُ عَدُوٌّ لِّى وَعَدُوٌّ لَّهُۥ ۚ وَأَلْقَيْتُ عَلَيْكَ مَحَبَّةً مِّنِّى وَلِتُصْنَعَ عَلَىٰ عَيْنِىٓ
“[Saying], 'Cast him into the chest and cast it into the river, and the river will throw it onto the bank; there will take him an enemy to Me and an enemy to him.' And I bestowed upon you love from Me that you would be brought up under My eye [i.e., observation and care].”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:39 Read 20:39 with tafsir
Into this hunting season a baby was born, and his mother managed to hide the pregnancy and the birth, no one knowing. Harun, peace be upon him, was already a little older, born in a year the killing had paused; but Musa came when the soldiers were watching every Israelite cradle, and a newborn cannot keep quiet. So Allah did something He does for those He loves: He sent the mother an instruction. Not the revelation of a prophet, Mufti Menk is careful to say, but a strong inspiration cast into her heart with such certainty that she could not doubt it. Nurse him as normal; and when you fear for him, do not cling, do not hide him in the house, place him in the river, and do not be afraid and do not grieve, for We will return him to you and We will make him a messenger.
Sit, Mufti Menk says, with what that asked of a mother. Look at the Nile, that vast moving river. Who takes their own child, seals him in a little wooden box or a basket of reeds, sets him on the water, and lets go? No mother would even think of it. Only an inspiration that solid could have moved her hand. And notice the promise folded inside the command: We will return him to you. The plan was already complete, every step of it, long before she reached the riverbank. In Surah Ta-Ha Allah lets Musa hear, years later, exactly what was woven over him from the start: I cast upon you love from Me, so that you would be raised in front of My own eye. The basket was never drifting. It was being carried.
Fished out by the very house that hunted him
فَٱلْتَقَطَهُۥٓ ءَالُ فِرْعَوْنَ لِيَكُونَ لَهُمْ عَدُوًّا وَحَزَنًا ۗ إِنَّ فِرْعَوْنَ وَهَٰمَٰنَ وَجُنُودَهُمَا كَانُوا۟ خَٰطِـِٔينَ
“And the family of Pharaoh picked him up [out of the river] so that he would become to them an enemy and a [cause of] grief. Indeed, Pharaoh and Hāmān and their soldiers were deliberate sinners.”
Surah al-Qasas 28:8 Read 28:8 with tafsir
وَقَالَتِ ٱمْرَأَتُ فِرْعَوْنَ قُرَّتُ عَيْنٍ لِّى وَلَكَ ۖ لَا تَقْتُلُوهُ عَسَىٰٓ أَن يَنفَعَنَآ أَوْ نَتَّخِذَهُۥ وَلَدًا وَهُمْ لَا يَشْعُرُونَ
“And the wife of Pharaoh said, "[He will be] a comfort of the eye [i.e., pleasure] for me and for you. Do not kill him; perhaps he may benefit us, or we may adopt him as a son." And they perceived not.”
Surah al-Qasas 28:9 Read 28:9 with tafsir
Now watch where the river takes him. The little box glides through a city full of people, and not one of them lifts it out. It floats past every checkpoint that would have stopped a person on land, and it comes to rest at the one address in all of Egypt the mother would never have dared approach: the bank at the back of Pharaoh's own palace. Try, Mufti Menk says, to reach that palace by road, and you would be turned back a dozen times. Coming by water, the child sailed straight into the tyrant's garden and was lifted from the river by Pharaoh's own household. The Qur'an names the terrible irony without blinking: they picked him up so that he would become for them an enemy and a grief, the very thing Pharaoh had murdered a generation of infants to prevent, now drying off in his wife's arms.
Pharaoh was suspicious and wanted the baby gone. But his wife, who had no children of her own, looked at the child and was undone by him: a comfort to my eye and to yours, she said, do not kill him, perhaps he will benefit us, or we will take him as a son. Mufti Menk lingers on the design in it. Had Pharaoh been a father many times over, this baby would have meant nothing to him and the order would have stood. Allah had kept his arms empty for years so that, on this one morning, a softness for one child would open in exactly the heart that needed to be softened. This is the name the bridge into the library carries: al-Latif, the Subtle, the One whose plan runs through the smallest, quietest details, threading a baby through an entire hostile empire and setting him down in the safest dangerous place on earth.
The milk he would only take from one woman
وَحَرَّمْنَا عَلَيْهِ ٱلْمَرَاضِعَ مِن قَبْلُ فَقَالَتْ هَلْ أَدُلُّكُمْ عَلَىٰٓ أَهْلِ بَيْتٍ يَكْفُلُونَهُۥ لَكُمْ وَهُمْ لَهُۥ نَٰصِحُونَ
“And We had prevented from him [all] wet nurses before, so she said, "Shall I direct you to a household that will be responsible for him for you while they are to him [for his upbringing] sincere?"”
Surah al-Qasas 28:12 Read 28:12 with tafsir
فَرَدَدْنَٰهُ إِلَىٰٓ أُمِّهِۦ كَىْ تَقَرَّ عَيْنُهَا وَلَا تَحْزَنَ وَلِتَعْلَمَ أَنَّ وَعْدَ ٱللَّهِ حَقٌّ وَلَٰكِنَّ أَكْثَرَهُمْ لَا يَعْلَمُونَ
“So We restored him to his mother that she might be content and not grieve and that she would know that the promise of Allāh is true. But most of them [i.e., the people] do not know.”
Surah al-Qasas 28:13 Read 28:13 with tafsir
Back at home, the mother had not collapsed. The Qur'an says she sent the baby's sister to follow at a distance and watch, and Allah quietly arranged the rest: He made the infant refuse the breast of every wet-nurse they brought. Woman after woman, and the baby turned away, crying for milk and taking none. The whole palace was at a loss, and around a royal household there was no shortage of women hoping for the honour and the reward of nursing the new prince. Into that moment the sister stepped forward with the most natural sentence in the world: shall I show you a household that will take care of him for you, and be sincere to him? They were desperate, so they said yes, bring her, bring her.
And so the baby was placed back into the arms of his own mother, and he drank. They were astonished. Pharaoh himself asked her how the child suckled from her when he had refused everyone else, and who she was. She did not lie, and she did not give herself away; she answered around the question, saying simply that her milk was sweet and no child had ever refused her. Look, Mufti Menk says, at the precision of Allah's promise. He had told her, days earlier, do not grieve, We will return him to you, soon. And now she was not only reunited with her son, she was escorted, paid a stipend, and looked after, nursing her own child inside the palace of the man who had tried to kill him, free of charge, on the house. Allah restored him to his mother so that her eye would be cooled, and so that she would know with her whole heart that the promise of Allah is true. Mufti Menk turns it on us: how often does Allah promise that a good deed will be rewarded, and we do the deed and then sigh that we are still suffering? His promise is true. It comes when the time is right, not a moment before.
One blow, and a man on the run
وَلَمَّا بَلَغَ أَشُدَّهُۥ وَٱسْتَوَىٰٓ ءَاتَيْنَٰهُ حُكْمًا وَعِلْمًا ۚ وَكَذَٰلِكَ نَجْزِى ٱلْمُحْسِنِينَ
“And when he attained his full strength and was [mentally] mature, We bestowed upon him judgement and knowledge. And thus do We reward the doers of good.”
Surah al-Qasas 28:14 Read 28:14 with tafsir
وَدَخَلَ ٱلْمَدِينَةَ عَلَىٰ حِينِ غَفْلَةٍ مِّنْ أَهْلِهَا فَوَجَدَ فِيهَا رَجُلَيْنِ يَقْتَتِلَانِ هَٰذَا مِن شِيعَتِهِۦ وَهَٰذَا مِنْ عَدُوِّهِۦ ۖ فَٱسْتَغَٰثَهُ ٱلَّذِى مِن شِيعَتِهِۦ عَلَى ٱلَّذِى مِنْ عَدُوِّهِۦ فَوَكَزَهُۥ مُوسَىٰ فَقَضَىٰ عَلَيْهِ ۖ قَالَ هَٰذَا مِنْ عَمَلِ ٱلشَّيْطَٰنِ ۖ إِنَّهُۥ عَدُوٌّ مُّضِلٌّ مُّبِينٌ
“And he entered the city at a time of inattention by its people and found therein two men fighting: one from his faction and one from among his enemy. And the one from his faction called for help to him against the one from his enemy, so Moses struck him and [unintentionally] killed him. [Moses] said, "This is from the work of Satan. Indeed, he is a manifest, misleading enemy."”
Surah al-Qasas 28:15 Read 28:15 with tafsir
He grew up inside that palace, fed and raised like royalty, and he grew into a powerful man: the Prophet ﷺ described Musa as dark in complexion, tall, strongly built, with a beard. But the strength that mattered was inside. Surrounded every single day by a man claiming to be god, Musa never for one moment believed it. He knew exactly who he was and Who his Lord was, and he worshipped the one Creator alone in the middle of all of it. That, says Mufti Menk, is the reward Allah gives the doers of good: when Musa reached his full strength and maturity, Allah granted him sound judgement and knowledge. Hold onto that for your own life, he urges: whatever environment you walk into, your deen comes first, and nothing should be allowed to shake your belief.
One day he entered the city at a quiet hour when its people were resting, and came upon two men fighting, one of his own people from Bani Israil, one from Pharaoh's people. The Israelite called out to him for help, and Musa, this immensely strong young man, stepped in and struck the Egyptian a single blow. One blow, and the man was dead. He had only meant to break up the fight; he had never intended to kill. And the instant he saw the man drop, he was stricken with regret: this is from the work of Shaytan, he said, he is a clear and misleading enemy. He turned at once to Allah and asked forgiveness, and Allah forgave him. But the deed was done, and now he was a man with a secret and a fear.
Out of Egypt, into Madyan
وَجَآءَ رَجُلٌ مِّنْ أَقْصَا ٱلْمَدِينَةِ يَسْعَىٰ قَالَ يَٰمُوسَىٰٓ إِنَّ ٱلْمَلَأَ يَأْتَمِرُونَ بِكَ لِيَقْتُلُوكَ فَٱخْرُجْ إِنِّى لَكَ مِنَ ٱلنَّٰصِحِينَ
“And a man came from the farthest end of the city, running. He said, "O Moses, indeed the eminent ones are conferring over you [intending] to kill you, so leave [the city]; indeed, I am to you of the sincere advisors."”
Surah al-Qasas 28:20 Read 28:20 with tafsir
فَخَرَجَ مِنْهَا خَآئِفًا يَتَرَقَّبُ ۖ قَالَ رَبِّ نَجِّنِى مِنَ ٱلْقَوْمِ ٱلظَّٰلِمِينَ
“So he left it, fearful and anticipating [apprehension]. He said, "My Lord, save me from the wrongdoing people."”
Surah al-Qasas 28:21 Read 28:21 with tafsir
By morning the city was uneasy, and when Musa went back the next day he found the same Israelite in another fight, crying out to him again. As Musa moved to intervene, the other man threw it in his face: do you mean to kill me the way you killed someone yesterday? Now the secret was out, said aloud for anyone to hear. And from the far end of the city a man came running with a warning that saved his life: O Musa, the chiefs are taking counsel against you, they mean to kill you, so get out, I am sincerely advising you. Musa did not stop to pack or plan. He left immediately, on foot, frightened and watching the road, with a prayer on his lips that is the cry of every cornered believer: my Lord, save me from these wrongdoing people.
He walked, and kept walking, with no real knowledge of the roads, until, the reports say, his shoes had worn through. When he finally turned toward Madyan he made another du'a, that Allah would guide him to the right path, toward some good on this road. And it is here, Mufti Menk reminds us, that Allah folds in the line from Surah Ta-Ha, telling Musa years later: you killed a soul, and We saved you from the distress, and We tested you with a thorough testing. The killing, the running, the worn-out shoes: none of it was outside the plan. It was the testing that was making him into the man who would one day stand before Pharaoh and not flinch.
The well, the two women, and a roof at last
فَسَقَىٰ لَهُمَا ثُمَّ تَوَلَّىٰٓ إِلَى ٱلظِّلِّ فَقَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّى لِمَآ أَنزَلْتَ إِلَىَّ مِنْ خَيْرٍ فَقِيرٌ
“So he watered [their flocks] for them; then he went back to the shade and said, "My Lord, indeed I am, for whatever good You would send down to me, in need."”
Surah al-Qasas 28:24 Read 28:24 with tafsir
قَالَتْ إِحْدَىٰهُمَا يَٰٓأَبَتِ ٱسْتَـْٔجِرْهُ ۖ إِنَّ خَيْرَ مَنِ ٱسْتَـْٔجَرْتَ ٱلْقَوِىُّ ٱلْأَمِينُ
“One of the women said, "O my father, hire him. Indeed, the best one you can hire is the strong and the trustworthy."”
Surah al-Qasas 28:26 Read 28:26 with tafsir
At the watering well of Madyan he found a crowd of men pressing their flocks to drink, and off to the side, holding their animals back, two women waiting their turn. He asked them what their situation was, and the answer told him everything about the house they came from: we do not water until the shepherds finish and leave, and our father is a very old man. They were explaining, with dignity, why two women were doing a man's work at all. So Musa, exhausted as he was, stepped in, watered their whole flock himself, and sent them home. Then he went back to the shade and made one of the most quietly beautiful du'as in the Qur'an: my Lord, whatever good You send down to me, I am in need of it. A stranger with no home, no food, no shelter, asking no person for anything, laying his need before Allah alone.
He had barely finished when one of the two women came back, walking modestly, to say that her father wished to reward him for watering their flock. The historians, Mufti Menk relays, hold that this elderly father was the prophet Shu'ayb, peace be upon him, though he notes this is not stated in the Qur'an or the authentic Sunnah, so it is not something to build belief on. Musa told the family his story, and the old man comforted him: do not fear, you have escaped the wrongdoing people. Then one of the daughters gave her father advice that doubles as a portrait of Musa, and a hiring principle that still holds: father, hire him, for the best person you can employ is one who is strong and trustworthy. Musa had shown both at the well, the strength to water a whole flock alone, and the honesty that let her walk home safely ahead of him.
So Shu'ayb offered Musa one of his daughters in marriage, on the condition that Musa work for him for eight years, and if he completed ten that was his own kindness; and Musa would find him, Allah willing, among the righteous. Mufti Menk smiles at the warmth of the arrangement, the employer promising to be good, the worker agreeing to give his best. Musa served the fuller of the two terms, ten years, and through every one of them Allah was training him the way He trains all His prophets, with a shepherd's staff and a flock, because the patience animals demand is harder than the patience people demand, and a man schooled on sheep can handle a nation. The Prophet ﷺ told us plainly: Allah sent no prophet who had not herded sheep. When the years were done, Musa married, took his wife, and set out to go home and see his people. And that, Mufti Menk says, is where a whole new chapter opens. We have an appointment with it tomorrow.