Taha: (77-79) And indeed, We revealed to...

And know that in His saying: {And indeed, We revealed to Moses, "Take My servants by night, and strike for them a dry path across the sea..."} there is an indication that Moses, peace be upon him, had many followers in that situation. Allah, the Exalted, intended to distinguish them from Pharaoh's faction and save them, so He revealed to him to travel by night. Asr (سري) is the name for night travel, and Isra' (إسراء) is similar.

If it is asked: What is the wisdom in making them travel by night? We reply: There are several reasons:

1. So that their gathering would not be witnessed by the enemy, preventing them from completing their objective.
2. To hinder Pharaoh and his followers from pursuing them.
3. So that when the two armies drew near, Moses's army would not see Pharaoh's army, thus not fearing them.

As for His saying: {and strike for them a dry path across the sea}, there are two interpretations:

1. It means: Make for them a path, derived from the saying "they struck for him a share in his wealth" (ضرب له في ماله سهما), and "striking bricks" (ضرب اللبن) means making them.
2. It means: Show them a path in the sea by striking it with the staff, meaning he struck the sea with the staff until it split. The verb daraba (to strike) was extended to the path itself.

The essence is that striking the path meant making the path dry by striking. Then, the Almighty explained that all means of safety were present on that path:

1. It was dry: It was read as yābisā (يابسا) or yabsan (يبسا) with a fatḥa on the yā' and a sukūn on the bā'.
   • Whoever reads yābisā takes it to mean the path.
   • Whoever reads yabsan (with fatḥa on bā') means dryness (yubs and yābis are the same thing), meaning a path that was drier.
   • Whoever reads yabsan (with sukūn on bā') it is a shortened form of yubs, meaning it had no mud or dampness, let alone water.

2. His saying: {Fear not capture, nor be afraid} (lā takhāfu darkan wa lā takhshā). This means: Do not fear that Pharaoh will catch up to you, for I will place a barrier between you and him by delaying him.
   • Sībawayh said that the raising of takhāfu (تخاف) has two possibilities:
     • As a ḥāl (state), like saying, "unafraid and not fearful."
     • As a new sentence beginning, meaning "You do not fear," which is the view of al-Farrā'.
   • Al-Akhfash and al-Zajjāj said the meaning is: "Do not fear therein," similar to His saying: {And fear a Day when no soul will compensate for another soul} (Al-Baqarah: 48), meaning no soul will compensate therein.
   • Ḥamzah read it as lā takhfa (لا تخف) [imperative negation]. This has two interpretations:
     • It is a prohibition.
     • Abū ʿAlī said it is the response to the conditional clause, meaning: If you strike, do not fear.

• Based on this reading (lā takhfa), three interpretations are mentioned for {wa lā takhshā} (ولا تخشى): * It is a new sentence, as if it were said: And you are not afraid, meaning your state is one of safety, you are not afraid. * The alif is not the alif resulting from the change of a yā' (which is the lām of the verb), but an extra letter added for rhetorical pause (fāṣilah), like in {So they led us astray from the way} (Al-Aḥzāb: 48) and {and you thought about Allah with [other than] ill} (Al-Aḥzāb: 10). * It is like His saying: > And an old woman of ʿAbsham mocks me, > As if she had never seen a captive from Yemen before me.

• The third interpretation of {wa lā takhshā} is: You do not fear Pharaoh overtaking you, nor do you fear drowning in the water.

As for His saying: {Then Pharaoh followed them with his troops} (fa-tabaʿahum Firʿawnu bi-junūdihi): Abū Muslim said that the narrators of the language claim that atbaʿahum (أتبعهم) and tabaʿahum (تبعهم) are the same, which is permissible. It is possible that the bā' is extra, meaning Pharaoh followed them with his troops, like His saying: {Do not seize me by my beard nor by my head} (Taha: 94).

Al-Zajjāj said: It was read as: {Then Pharaoh followed them, and his troops} (fa-atbaʿahum Firʿaunu wa junūduhu), meaning Pharaoh followed them along with his troops. It was also read as {bi-junūdihi} (بجنوده), meaning his troops joined them, or it could mean with them.

As for {So what covered them} (fa-ghashiyahum): The meaning is: it overwhelmed them and concealed them. What covered them is an emphasis on the matter, meaning what covered them was a reality whose nature only Allah, the Exalted, knows. It was also read as: {So what covered them of the sea covered them} (fa-ghashāhum mina al-yammi mā ghashiyahum). The actor of ghashāhum (covered them) is either Allah, the Sublime, or what covered them, or Pharaoh, because he was the one who led his troops into ruin and caused their destruction.

As for His saying: {And Pharaoh led his people astray, and he did not guide} (Wa aḍalla Firʿawnu qawmahu wa mā hadā): The Qadi used this as evidence, arguing that if misguidance were created by Allah, it would not be permissible to say, "And Pharaoh led his people astray"; rather, it would be obligatory to say, "Allah led them astray." Furthermore, Allah condemned him for this, so how could He be the creator of disbelief? For whoever condemns another for an action must not be the doer of that action, otherwise, he deserves that condemnation himself. His saying {and he did not guide} is a mockery of Pharaoh's statement: {I guide you only to the way of righteousness} (Ghafir: 29).

We will now mention the story and the discussions within it.

Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: When Allah commanded Moses to take his people across the sea, Moses and the Children of Israel had borrowed jewelry and mounts from Pharaoh's people for a festival they were going to. He took them out by night; they were six hundred thousand plus three thousand, none of them under twenty or sixty years old. Joseph (peace be upon him) had commanded them upon his death to take his bones out of Egypt with them, but they did not take them. The people were perplexed until an old woman showed them the location of the bones, so they took them. Moses (peace be upon him) told the old woman: "Name your reward." She said: "To be with you in Paradise."

Ibn Abbas also mentioned that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) and Abu Bakr came upon an Arab man and his wife who only had a goat, which they slaughtered for them. The Prophet (PBUH) said: "If you hear of a man who has appeared in Yathrib, go to him, perhaps Allah will grant you better from him." When he heard of the Prophet's appearance (PBUH), he came to him with his wife and said: "Do you recognize me?" He replied: "Yes, I recognize you." He told him: "Name your reward." He said: "Eighty ewes," and he gave them to him, saying: "Know that the old woman of the Children of Israel was better than you."

Pharaoh set out in pursuit of Moses (peace be upon him), with one million and five hundred thousand soldiers at the vanguard, besides the flanks and the center. When Moses reached the sea, he said: "I was commanded here." Then Moses (peace be upon him) said to the sea: "Split apart!" but it refused. Allah revealed to him to strike the sea with his staff, so he struck it, and it split. Moses (peace be upon him) told them: "Enter it." They said: "How, when its ground is wet?" So he supplicated to Allah, and the east wind blew upon it, drying it. They said: "We fear drowning among ourselves." So he made openings between them so that they could see one another. Then they entered until they passed the sea. Pharaoh approached those paths, and his people told him: "Moses has bewitched the sea, making it as you see."

Gabriel (peace be upon him) was on a mare, followed by Pharaoh on a stallion, along with thirty-three angels. Gabriel (peace be upon him) positioned himself in front of Pharaoh, and the stallion saw the stone [path] and plunged after it, with Pharaoh following. The angels cried out to the people: "Catch the King!" When the last of them entered and the first were about to exit, the sea closed upon them, and they drowned. The Children of Israel heard the crashing of the sea upon them and said: "What is this, O Moses?" He replied: "Allah has drowned Pharaoh and his people." They returned to look at them and said: "O Moses, supplicate to Allah to bring them out for us so we can look at them." He supplicated, and the sea cast them onto the shore, and they took spoils from their weapons.

Ibn Abbas mentioned that Gabriel (peace be upon him) said: "O Muhammad, if only you had seen me pushing Pharaoh into the water and mud, fearing that he might repent." This is the meaning of His saying: {So what covered them of the sea covered them}.

There are discussions regarding this story:

It is narrated in reports that when Moses (peace be upon him) struck the sea with his staff, twelve dry paths formed, ready to be trodden, and the water remained standing between each path like a mighty mountain (ṭūd ʿaẓīm). Each tribe of the Children of Israel took one of these paths. Some say there was only one path. The evidence for the first view is the reports, and from the Quran, His saying: {And We left the sea parted [with a dry path] for them, like great mountains} (Ash-Shuʿarā’: 63). This could only happen if there were paths, so that the water standing between the two paths would be like a mighty mountain. The evidence for the second view is the apparent meaning of His saying: {and strike for them a dry path across the sea}, which refers to a single path, although it can be interpreted generically to include multiple paths.

It is narrated that after Moses (peace be upon him) showed them the path and explained it, the Children of Israel were obstinate and said: "We want to see one another." This is strange, because when the people saw Pharaoh approaching, they were extremely fearful. A fearful person, upon finding a path for escape and salvation, would not be preoccupied with cold-hearted stubbornness.

Pharaoh was intelligent, even extremely cunning. How then did he choose to throw himself into destruction, knowing that the splitting of the sea was not by his command? Regarding this, two explanations are mentioned:

1. That Gabriel (peace be upon him) was on a mare, and Pharaoh's stallion followed him. One might argue this is unlikely, as it is improbable that the king would venture into such places ahead of his entire army. What they mentioned only holds if that was indeed the case. Moreover, if the matter were as they said, Pharaoh would have been compelled to enter, which would increase his fear and make him hold back from entering. Furthermore, what need did Gabriel (peace be upon him) have for this trick when he could have taken him with his people and thrown him into the water from the start? Rather, it is better to say that he commanded the vanguard of his army to enter. They entered and were not drowned, so safety became his strong assumption. When everyone entered, Allah drowned them.

What is narrated about Gabriel (peace be upon him) pushing Pharaoh into the water and mud for fear that he might believe, is remote, because preventing belief is not appropriate for the angels and prophets (peace be upon them).

What is narrated that Moses (peace be upon him) spoke to the sea, saying: "Split for me so I may cross you," and the sea replied: "No one who is disobedient passes over me." This is not impossible according to our principles, because we hold that structure/body is not a prerequisite for life. For the Mu'tazila, this is speaking metaphorically (lisān al-ḥāl) rather than literally (lisān al-maqāl). And Allah knows best.

7 < { O Children of Israel, We delivered you from your enemy, and We made a promise to you on the side of Mount Ṭūr. And We sent down upon you the manna and the quails. *Eat from the good things We have provided for you, and do not transgress therein, lest My wrath descend upon you; and he upon whom My wrath descends has certainly fallen. *And indeed, I am forgiving to whoever repents, believes, and does righteousness and then is guided.} > 7 !