Taha · Makki · ayah 77 of 135

Taha 20:77

وَلَقَدْ أَوْحَيْنَآ إِلَىٰ مُوسَىٰٓ أَنْ أَسْرِ بِعِبَادِى فَٱضْرِبْ لَهُمْ طَرِيقًا فِى ٱلْبَحْرِ يَبَسًا لَّا تَخَـٰفُ دَرَكًا وَلَا تَخْشَىٰ

“And We had inspired to Moses, "Travel by night with My servants and strike for them a dry path through the sea; you will not fear being overtaken [by Pharaoh] nor be afraid [of drowning]."”

Saheeh International

Essence

Allah calls the enslaved "My servants", sends them out by night, and opens a dry road through the sea, removing both fears before they arrive.

A reflection

They were never Pharaoh's

A talent manager is interviewed about the young performers he represents. Without thinking, he says he "owns" their careers. Months later, several of them leave him. They were never his. He had only been allowed to stand near them for a while.

Allah's command to Musa is: asri bi-ʿibādī, travel by night with My servants. Not "the Children of Israel", not "your people". My servants.

One commentator explains the weight of that phrase. Calling them by the title of servanthood to Allah shows His mercy and care for them. And it exposes how ugly Pharaoh's conduct was. He had enslaved them, when they were Allah's servants all along. He had done every kind of injustice to them without regard for their true Master.

That is majesty spoken quietly. For generations Pharaoh had treated these people as his property. Their labour, their children, their lives. With one word, Allah reassigns them. They belong to Him. They always did.

That shrinks every ego that has ever claimed another human being. The employer who treats staff as property. The parent who treats a child as an extension of himself. The leader who speaks of "my people" as if they were possessions. None of them owns anyone.

A sceptic might ask whether "servant of Allah" is simply another form of domination. The root of ʿibāda is pictured as a road worn smooth by many feet: utmost lowliness joined with love and awe. To be Allah's servant is precisely what freed these people from being Pharaoh's. Belonging to the Highest is the end of belonging to anyone lower.

Whoever you serve on earth, remember whose servant you really are. And whoever serves you, remember whose servants they really are.

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.