Taha · Makki · ayah 22 of 135

Taha 20:22

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,”

Saheeh International

Essence

A second sign, on his own body: his hand pressed to his side comes out shining without disease, then returns to its colour.

A reflection

Light, not a skin colour

A children's book of prophet stories shows Musa as a pale man with fair hair, raising a glowing white hand. A Somali girl reading it asks her mother why none of the prophets look like her grandfather.

The Prophet ﷺ described Musa as he saw him on the night of his ascension. Al-Bukhari records it: a tall man, brown-skinned, with curly hair, like the men of the tribe of Shanūʾa. One classical theologian adds a report that Musa was very dark. When he drew his hand from under his arm, it came out flashing like lightning. When he put it back, it returned to its first colour, with no light in it.

So the sign was not a change of complexion. It was light, flashing from a brown man's hand. And the ayah adds three words: min ghayri sūʾ, without any harm. The commentators explain sūʾ here as a gentle way of referring to leprosy, the skin disease the Arabs feared most. The whiteness was not illness. It was radiance.

This matters, because people have read their own assumptions into this ayah. 'White' in it is not a verdict on skin. If anything, the opposite: Allah chose to show His sign on a dark hand, and then returned that hand to its own colour, unchanged.

One early teacher said: he brought it out like a lamp, and Musa knew he had met his Lord.

When we picture the prophets, it is worth letting the sources correct the images we absorbed as children. Read the hadith describing Musa, and let him look as the Prophet ﷺ saw him. And if you have ever felt that holiness has one colour, remember the shining brown hand at Tuwa.

The full entry has 5 more reflections, questions to sit with, and "Live it today" - with the words, the roots and the tafsir alongside. Free, no account, works offline.