Tafheem ul Quran

Surah 28 Al-Qasas, Ayat 7-7

وَاَوۡحَيۡنَاۤ اِلٰٓى اُمِّ مُوۡسٰٓى اَنۡ اَرۡضِعِيۡهِ​ۚ فَاِذَا خِفۡتِ عَلَيۡهِ فَاَ لۡقِيۡهِ فِى الۡيَمِّ وَلَا تَخَافِىۡ وَلَا تَحۡزَنِىۡۚ اِنَّا رَآدُّوۡهُ اِلَيۡكِ وَجٰعِلُوۡهُ مِنَ الۡمُرۡسَلِيۡنَ‏ ﴿28:7﴾

(28:7) We9 suggested to the mother of Moses: "Suckle your child, but when you fear for his life cast him into the river and be not fearful nor grieve, for We shall restore him to you and make him one of the Messengers."10


Notes

9. That a son was born in the same period to an Israelite parents who was later known by the name of Moses to the world, has been omitted. According to the Bible and the Talmud, the family descended from Levi, a son of the Prophet Jacob (peace be upon him), and the name of the Prophet Moses’ (peace be upon him) father was Amram, which has been pronounced as Imran by the Quran. They already had two children before Moses, the elder a daughter, named Miriam, and the younger her brother, Aaron. Probably the proclamation that every male child born in an Israelite home would be killed, had not yet been issued when the Prophet Aaron (peace be upon him) was born; therefore, he was saved. The third child was born when the proclamation was in full force.

10. That is, she was not commanded to cast the child into the river immediately after birth, but to suckle it till she felt a real danger for it. For instance, if she felt that the secret had been exposed and the enemies had come to know of the child’s birth through some means, or through some wretched informer from among the Israelites themselves, she should place the child in a box and cast it into the river, without any hesitation. According to the Bible, the Prophet Moses’ (peace be upon him) mother kept him hidden for three months after his birth. The Talmud adds that the Pharaoh’s government had appointed Egyptian women who carried infants into the Israelite homes, and would make these babies cry, so as to make any hidden Israelite infants also cry and be thus discovered. This new method of spying worried Moses’ mother and in order to save her child’s life, she cast him into the river three months after his birth. Up to this point the version given by these Books is the same as the Quran’s, and the event of casting the box into the river has also been described just as the Quran has described it. In Surah Ta-Ha it has been said: Put this child in a box and place the box in the river. (Ayat 39). The same has been said by the Bible and the Talmud. According to these, the Prophet Moses’ mother made a basket of reeds and covered it with slime (tar) and with pitch to make it watertight. Then she laid the child in it and placed it in the river Nile. But the most important thing, which the Quran mentions, has found no mention anywhere in the Israelite traditions, that is, that the Prophet Moses’ mother had done all this according to an inspiration from Allah, and Allah had already assured her that by following that device not only would her child remain safe and secure but the child would ultimately be restored to her, and that her child would become Allah’s Messenger in the future.