The Prophets Of Allah

Prophet Moses/Musa PBUH -3

Things were at this point getting very difficult for Firaun. He had full confidence that the magicians would defeat Musa AS and Haroon AS and hence Firaun could establish once again in the people that whoever stood opposed to him would be humiliated. Instead the people en mass witnessed the miracle of Allah as the staff cast down by Musa AS became a snake which swallowed up the magicians tricks and defeated them and then to further add to the humiliation of Firaun the magicians hired by him fell in sujood after witnessing the miracle of Allah and bore witness that Allah is one and were willing to die in this belief. Allah SWT showed these signs before all of the population of Egypt and you can just about imagine the control beginning to slip from Firaun's hands and the frustration he felt.

Firaun's advisers urged him to do something about the situation.

'The chiefs of Firaun's people said: Will you leave Musa and his people to spread mischief in the land, and to abandon you and your gods? He said: Their male children will we slay; their females will we save alive; they cannot resist us.' – Surah Al Araaf, ayaat 127

We see that in order to contain the situation and spread the fear using the force of which he ruled his people, Firaun once again abused his power over Bani Israel. He had once issued this order before at the birth of Musa AS. This was indeed a hard trial for them and one they were unable to deal with well because they had full hope that Allah SWT would deliver them and they had forgotten about the sacrifices they would have to make in order to gain this victory. We see in the Quran their response.

'They said: We have had trouble both before and after you came to us' – Surah Al Araaf, ayaat 129

This sheds some light on the characteristics of a people who do not want to sacrifice anything in the way of Allah. They are already crushed and oppressed. Although they want success and victory over Firaun more dearly than anything else they want, they are not willing to sacrifice in order to attain that victory.

Unfortunately we see a similar trait in people among our ummah. We often see an individual or a group of individuals stand up and criticise the entire ummah. They say we are oppressed and suffering in this world because we are not establishing a khilafah or following the shariah. This person or people often criticise the enitre ummah, including everyone but himself. He beleives himself powerless to do anything.

What we need to realise is that we are an ummah, not individual nations, because that is the way we are viewed by Allah SWT. If there is a problem in Palestine it is not just for the people in Palestine, it is because of the entire ummah. If there is a problem in Kashmir or Myanmar, or Syria, it is not just a problem for them. It is because of the deeds of the entire Muslim ummah that we have to face such troubles. We should not just dismiss them as the faults of others. Somewhere there we are at fault too. It is understandable that we cannot go and fight for them or do anything extreme such as fighting at their borders but we could help by raising the awareness of the people, by uniting the ummah in aid of the people who are suffering and to ensure that peace prevails among our people. Nations are just what we have divided ourselves into. If there is a problem in Syria and you are Pakistani, don't just dismiss it as a Syrian problem. Try to do whatever you can to help. Fund-raise for a charity, raise awareness of the problems, build facilities for people who have been made helpless by disaster, and if you are young and fit and have free time, go and help these charities on the ground there. If you are a doctor volunteer your time. If the most you can do is blog about the situation then do at least that. These little sacrifices we make can inshAllah lead us to victory once again.

Then consider the advice of Musa AS to his people in response to what they said. Basically what they have said to Musa AS is that you are of no help to us. You caused us harm before and you're causing us harm now. His feelings must have been hurt. Instead of defending himself though, and saying I am a messenger and your leader I was just doing what Allah SWT is telling me to etc, he reassures his people of the promise of victory from Allah SWT.