He had left Egypt a wanted man, running for his life across the sand. Ten years later he is a husband and a shepherd, settled with the family of a righteous old man in Madyan whom most scholars name as the Prophet Shu'ayb, peace be upon him. And he is homesick. So Musa, peace be upon him, gathers his family and turns back toward Egypt, the one place that still frightens him, traveling by night on roads he barely knows.
This is day twenty, the second part of his story. Last time Allah floated a baby in a box to the doorstep of the very palace that wanted him dead. Tonight, on a cold mountainside, a lost traveler walks toward a distant fire to ask for directions, and walks instead into the single most extraordinary conversation any human being on earth has ever had.
A light on the mountain
فَلَمَّا قَضَىٰ مُوسَى ٱلْأَجَلَ وَسَارَ بِأَهْلِهِۦٓ ءَانَسَ مِن جَانِبِ ٱلطُّورِ نَارًا قَالَ لِأَهْلِهِ ٱمْكُثُوٓا۟ إِنِّىٓ ءَانَسْتُ نَارًا لَّعَلِّىٓ ءَاتِيكُم مِّنْهَا بِخَبَرٍ أَوْ جَذْوَةٍ مِّنَ ٱلنَّارِ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَصْطَلُونَ
“And when Moses had completed the term and was traveling with his family, he perceived from the direction of the mount a fire. He said to his family, "Stay here; indeed, I have perceived a fire. Perhaps I will bring you from there [some] information or burning wood from the fire that you may warm yourselves."”
Surah al-Qasas 28:29 Read 28:29 with tafsir
He had finished his ten years of work, married, and now wanted to go home. It is a small, human detail, and the Qur'an keeps it: a man missing the place he came from, taking his wife out into the dark, unsure of the road. Then, off to one side of the mountain, a flame. To a cold, lost traveler a fire means two things at once, warmth and directions, and he wanted both. Wait here, he tells his family. I have seen a fire. Let me go to it. Maybe I will bring back a burning branch so you can warm yourselves, or at the very least I will find someone there who can tell us the way.
Mufti Menk stops the story here and turns it on us, because this is the part that is about you. How often are we the lost traveler, wandering in the dark spiritually, following our own footsteps in a circle, when Allah sends up a light, a reminder, a khutbah on a Friday, a word that lands at exactly the right moment? Musa did not sit and wait for the fire to come to him. He saw the light, and he moved toward it. Guidance, the Mufti says, does not simply arrive and pour itself down your throat. You have to recognise it, and you have to walk. Strain it like you strain your tea, take what is pure, this is what Allah said, this is what His Messenger ﷺ said, and go.
The voice of the One who made him
فَلَمَّآ أَتَىٰهَا نُودِىَ يَٰمُوسَىٰٓ
“And when he came to it, he was called, "O Moses,”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:11 Read 20:11 with tafsir
إِنِّىٓ أَنَا۠ رَبُّكَ فَٱخْلَعْ نَعْلَيْكَ ۖ إِنَّكَ بِٱلْوَادِ ٱلْمُقَدَّسِ طُوًى
“Indeed, I am your Lord, so remove your sandals. Indeed, you are in the blessed valley of Ṭuwā.”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:12 Read 20:12 with tafsir
He came close, and it was not the light of an ordinary fire. It was brighter than that, and out of it came a voice, calling him by his name in the dark: O Musa. Imagine it, Mufti Menk says. You are alone on a mountain at night, and something speaks your name, and you cannot see who. The voice steadies him with the most reassuring words possible: I am your Lord. Your Rabb, the word Mufti Menk keeps returning to across this whole series, because no single English word carries it: the One who made you, feeds you, sustains you, protects you, holds every atom of your being in His hand.
This was Allah Himself, speaking directly to a human being, and from that night Musa carried a title no one else carries: Kalimullah, the one to whom Allah spoke. We will never know what that voice sounded like; not one of us has heard it. Only Musa did. And the first instruction is to take off his sandals, for he is standing in the sacred valley of Tuwa, on blessed ground. Mufti Menk draws a gentle lesson out of the bare feet: if you want to benefit spiritually, you have to let go of whatever is sticking you to the dust of this world. Put down what ties you to the ground, and listen to what your Lord is about to ask of you.
Three things, in order
إِنَّنِىٓ أَنَا ٱللَّهُ لَآ إِلَٰهَ إِلَّآ أَنَا۠ فَٱعْبُدْنِى وَأَقِمِ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ لِذِكْرِىٓ
“Indeed, I am Allāh. There is no deity except Me, so worship Me and establish prayer for My remembrance.”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:14 Read 20:14 with tafsir
إِنَّ ٱلسَّاعَةَ ءَاتِيَةٌ أَكَادُ أُخْفِيهَا لِتُجْزَىٰ كُلُّ نَفْسٍۭ بِمَا تَسْعَىٰ
“Indeed, the Hour is coming - I almost conceal it - so that every soul may be recompensed according to that for which it strives.”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:15 Read 20:15 with tafsir
Before any mission, before a word about Pharaoh, Allah hands Musa three things, and Mufti Menk lays them out in the order they come. First: I am Allah, there is no deity except Me, so worship Me alone. Pure tawhid, the same opening line every single messenger was sent with, the warning against shirk before anything else. Second: and establish prayer for My remembrance. Worship Me, and then keep that worship standing, hold up the salah. Third: the Hour is coming, and I have kept its timing hidden, so that every soul is repaid for what it worked toward.
Look at the mercy folded into that third one, Mufti Menk says. If we each knew the exact hour of our death, we would sin freely until ten minutes before and only then rush to stand in prayer. Allah hid it so that no one can game the test, so that everyone is judged honestly by how they actually lived. And there is a whole life in these three lines. Believe in the oneness of Allah and associate nothing with Him. Do what He has commanded. Stay conscious that one day you will answer to Him, which is exactly what keeps you away from what He forbade. Hold those three, the Mufti says, and you are already among the best of people, the same three Allah handed first to Musa on the mountain.
What is in your right hand?
وَمَا تِلْكَ بِيَمِينِكَ يَٰمُوسَىٰ
“And what is that in your right hand, O Moses?"”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:17 Read 20:17 with tafsir
قَالَ هِىَ عَصَاىَ أَتَوَكَّؤُا۟ عَلَيْهَا وَأَهُشُّ بِهَا عَلَىٰ غَنَمِى وَلِىَ فِيهَا مَـَٔارِبُ أُخْرَىٰ
“He said, "It is my staff; I lean upon it, and I bring down leaves for my sheep and I have therein other uses."”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:18 Read 20:18 with tafsir
Then Allah asks him a question He already knows the answer to: and what is that in your right hand, Musa? A staff, he could simply have said, and that would have been enough. But notice what Musa does instead, and this is one of the moments Mufti Menk loves most. He cannot bring himself to keep the conversation short. It is my staff, he says. I lean on it. I knock down leaves with it for my sheep. And, he keeps going, I have other uses for it too. Allah only asked what it was; Musa wanted to stay in the conversation a little longer, because when, he must have felt, will I ever get this chance again?
Mufti Menk turns it straight onto our prayer. When we say Allahu Akbar and stand before Allah, how many of us are quietly waiting for it to end, watching the clock, worshippers of the wristwatch? And here is Musa, with the actual voice of Allah, stretching the moment out as long as he can, telling Him about the leaves and the sheep. May we be among those, the Mufti prays, who forget the time the moment we begin to speak with our Lord.
The staff, the serpent, and the shining hand
فَأَلْقَىٰهَا فَإِذَا هِىَ حَيَّةٌ تَسْعَىٰ
“So he threw it down, and thereupon it was a snake, moving swiftly.”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:20 Read 20:20 with tafsir
وَٱضْمُمْ يَدَكَ إِلَىٰ جَنَاحِكَ تَخْرُجْ بَيْضَآءَ مِنْ غَيْرِ سُوٓءٍ ءَايَةً أُخْرَىٰ
“And draw in your hand to your side; it will come out white without disease - another sign,”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:22 Read 20:22 with tafsir
Throw it down, Musa. And here is the lesson Mufti Menk will not let us miss: Musa does not ask why. He does not say what will happen, or what is the point. He knows it is from Allah, so he obeys, and the answer comes after the obedience, not before. The moment the staff hits the ground it is a living serpent, moving fast, and Musa instinctively turns to flee. Allah calls him back: seize it, and do not fear. Fear, the Mufti says, is for those who do not believe; a believer fears Allah and no one else. So Musa takes the live snake in his hands and it folds back into a wooden staff.
Then the second sign: draw your hand to your side, and it comes out white, shining, without any disease, brighter than the sun, pure light. Two signs for one man. And compare him, Mufti Menk says, to us. We hear an instruction from Allah and our first move is to argue: but why, what is wrong with this, why can't I? Someone once asked the Mufti, what is so wrong with eating pork? The answer is the answer Musa lived: the moment you know it is from Allah, you surrender. He was handed a serpent and a blaze of light precisely because he threw the staff down first, and asked nothing.
Open my chest, ease my task, loosen my tongue
ٱذْهَبْ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّهُۥ طَغَىٰ
“Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed [i.e., tyrannized]."”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:24 Read 20:24 with tafsir
قَالَ رَبِّ ٱشْرَحْ لِى صَدْرِى
“[Moses] said, "My Lord, expand [i.e., relax] for me my breast [with assurance]”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:25 Read 20:25 with tafsir
وَٱجْعَل لِّى وَزِيرًا مِّنْ أَهْلِى هَٰرُونَ أَخِى
“And appoint for me a minister [i.e., assistant] from my family - Aaron, my brother.”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:29-30 Read 20:29 with tafsir
Then comes the command that would have stopped anyone's heart. Go to Pharaoh; indeed, he has transgressed. One man, alone, sent to the most powerful tyrant of the age, the same Egypt he fled as a wanted man, with the memory of the life he had accidentally taken still hanging over him. And Musa does not refuse, not for an instant. He answers with a du'a, and it is one of the most beloved supplications in the whole Qur'an: My Lord, expand for me my chest, and ease for me my task, and untie the knot from my tongue, so that they may understand my speech. Open my heart wide enough to carry this. Make the hard thing light. Loosen the words on my tongue so they land.
And then he asks for something most of us would never think to ask for: not just help, but a helper, by name. Appoint for me a minister from my family, Harun, my brother. Strengthen me through him. Let him share my task. Musa knew his brother was the more eloquent speaker, and he wanted that strength beside him before the throne of Pharaoh, so the message would reach further. He did not first go and consult Harun and check whether he was willing; he turned straight to Allah and asked for him. This, Mufti Menk says, is the du'a we still reach for to this day, when we want Allah to make any task of ours easy, memorising the Qur'an, anything we are straining toward. Rabbi-shrah li sadri wa yassir li amri. If Allah heard these very words once and answered them, why would He not answer them again?
Go, both of you, and speak gently
قَالَ قَدْ أُوتِيتَ سُؤْلَكَ يَٰمُوسَىٰ
“[Allāh] said, "You have been granted your request, O Moses.”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:36 Read 20:36 with tafsir
فَقُولَا لَهُۥ قَوْلًا لَّيِّنًا لَّعَلَّهُۥ يَتَذَكَّرُ أَوْ يَخْشَىٰ
“And speak to him with gentle speech that perhaps he may be reminded or fear [Allāh]."”
Surah Ta-Ha 20:44 Read 20:44 with tafsir
Allah answers every part of it at once: you have been granted your request, Musa. Harun is made a prophet alongside him; Allah will brace Musa's strength with his brother's, and grant the two of them an authority Pharaoh cannot touch. Mufti Menk pauses on the sheer beauty of this. Of all people, Musa did the single greatest favour a man ever did his own brother: he asked Allah to make Harun a prophet, and Harun became one. May Allah, the Mufti prays, give us families like that, who push us toward Him instead of pulling us back.
And then the instruction that should reorder how we speak to anyone at all. Go, both of you, to Pharaoh, and speak to him with gentle speech, so that perhaps he may be reminded or may fear. Gentle words. To Pharaoh, the man who claimed to be god. Mufti Menk lays the logic out plainly: there is no one you will ever speak to who is worse than Pharaoh, and there is no one among us better than Musa, peace be upon him. So if Musa was sent to the worst of men with soft words, who exactly are we to be harsh with the people we are trying to call back to Allah? Persevere, choose your words well, and keep calling, kindly. That is da'wah.
The same call, kept in Juz Amma
هَلْ أَتَىٰكَ حَدِيثُ مُوسَىٰٓ
“Has there reached you the story of Moses? -”
Surah an-Naziat 79:15 Read 79:15 with tafsir
ٱذْهَبْ إِلَىٰ فِرْعَوْنَ إِنَّهُۥ طَغَىٰ
“"Go to Pharaoh. Indeed, he has transgressed.”
Surah an-Naziat 79:17 Read 79:17 with tafsir
This same night on the mountain is told again, far shorter and far closer to the end of the Qur'an, in a surah you may already be praying in Juz Amma. Has the story of Musa reached you, Allah asks, when his Lord called to him in the sacred valley of Tuwa: go to Pharaoh, indeed he has transgressed; and say to him, would you purify yourself, and let me guide you to your Lord so that you would fear Him? The same valley, the same command, the same tyrant, distilled into a handful of verses. When you reach an-Naziat in your prayer, you are standing on this exact mountain.
And the line is drawn straight to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Years later, alone in a cave on a different mountain, another man would be startled by a voice he could not place, told read, and would come down trembling, terrified of a task that felt far too large for one person. Every prophet who was ever sent felt the weight Musa felt that night, and every one of them was carried by the same Lord who answered, you have been granted your request. The fire on Tur and the cave of Hira are two scenes of one unbroken story, the chain of prophets walking toward him ﷺ, the final one.